THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


THE  NON-HEREDITY  OF 
INEBRIETY 


LESLIE  E.  KEELEY,  M.D.,  LL.D. 


NO- 


CHICAGO 

SCOTT,  FORESMAN  &  COMPANY 

Successors  to 
S.  C.  GRIGGS  &  COMPANY 

i  896 

VANDERBILT   UN1VE: 


COPYRIGHT,    1896 
BY    S.    C.    GRIGGS    AND    COMPANY 


the  Desplaincs  Press 
P.  F.  PETTIBONE  &  Co.,  CHICAGO 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

MEDICAL  CREEDS  AND  MEDICAL  I)EYELOI>MENT      -  g 

CHAPTER    II. 

THE  MODERN  PR<><  -        -     20 

CHAPTER   III. 
OXYGEN,  OZONE,  AND  BACTERIA  39 

CHAPTER    IV. 

IMMUNITY  EROM   P«  -      47 

CHAPTER    V. 
SOCIAL  RELATIONS  OF  Pois<  THEIR  O  68 

CHAPTER  VI. 

INFLUENCE  OF  MIND  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEA  -      83 

CHAPTER  VII. 

SEROTHERAPY,  AND  NATURAE  Si  .  HON 

TO  IMMUNITY  FROM    I  ' 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
QUEER  MEDICAL  FADS no 

CHAPTER    IX. 

WHAT  is  INEBRIETY  ? -        121 

3 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   X. 
THE  EVIL  OF  INTEMPERANCE  ....    i^0 

CHAPTER   XI. 
Is  ALCOHOL  A  FOOD  ? 140 

CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  TEMPERATE  USE  OF  ALCOHOL        -        -        -        -    148 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
THE  INEBRIATE  STOMACH 162 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  PATHOLOGY  OF  INEBRIETY 174 

CHAPTER  XV. 

PATHOLOGY  OF   INEBRIETY,  AND  ITS  RELATIONS  TO 

HEREDITY  -        -        -        -        188 

CHAPTER   XVI. 
INEBRIETY  AND  HEREDITY 197 

CHAPTER   XVII. 
CHILD  INEBRIETY 215 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
ACUTE  ALCOHOLIC  POISONING,  AND  DELIRIUM  TREMENS  228 

CHAPTER   XIX. 
INSANITY  FROM  ALCOHOL 240 

CHAPTER   XX. 
Is  THE  DRINK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE  ?  -251 


CONTEXTS. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 
THE  CURE  OF  INEBRIETY       -  275 

CHAPTER    XXII. 
TREATMENT  OF  INEHKIETY,  AND  OTHER  h  -284 

CHAPTER   XXIII. 
PSYCHICAL  Ac,  IKTY    -  291 

CHAPTER   XXIV. 
DRUNKENNESS  is  (  298 

CHAPTER    XXV. 
How  TO  TREAT  THE   hi  309 

HAPTER   XXVI. 
CAUSES  OF   RF.I.AI  CJRE          -        •        -    318 

CHAPTER    XXVII. 
Tin-:  RELATION  OF  PROHIBITION    n>  S<  -        325 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 
THE  RELATION  OF  WOMAN  TO  INF.HRIETY      -  -    334 

CHAPTER    XXIX. 
A  REVIEW  OF  THE    DISEASE   AND  THE   CURE  OF  Ix- 

KIJR1F.TY 342 


DR.   LESLIE  E.   KEELEY'S 

ARRAIGNMENT  OF  ALCOHOL. 


Extract  from  his  address  at  the  Auditorium,  Chicago,  ///., 
December  i8th,  1891. 


Will  anyone  deny  that  alcohol  is  the  chief  cause  of 
individual  failures  to  properly  make  adjustments  to  the 
circumstances  which  underlie  business  and  the  earning 
of  a  living.  Ventures  sent  to  sea  like  ships,  with  alcohol 
in  command  or  at  the  helm  cannot  mind  the  winds, 
take  proper  astronomical  observation,  nor  sail  the  ship 
to  the  right  port.  More  men  fail  in  business  or  lose 
their  employment  by  reason  of  drink  than  from  all 
other  causes.  Alcohol  ruins  a  man's  business,  health, 
his  home,  his  happiness,  his  brains. 

By  any  showing  whatever  then  there  is  no  cause 
which  equals  alcohol  in  producing  insanity.  It  moves 
in  triumphal  procession  along  every  route  of  stress 
which  leads  to  the  human  brain  and  mind.  Like  a 
flood  it  submerges  sense,  reason  and  the  will,  as  the 
deluge  did  the  valleys  and  the  hills.  Like  a  demon  it 
inhabits  the  man's  vitals  and  blows  its  breath  of  oblivion 
through  his  senses  into  that  most  wonderful  of  God's 
mechanism  the  higher  brain  centers.  With  fiendish 

6 


suggestion  of  cure  it  lies  ambushed  in  the  mother's 
remedy  for  ailments  of  her  children,  and  hid  in  the 
darkness  of  nature's  most  incomprehensible  secret,  it 
reaches  forth  the  skeleton  hand  of  Mephistopheles  and 
touches  the  unfolding  tissue  that  God  is  weaving  into  a 
human  brain.  That  touch  is  degeneration.  Not  yet 
content  it  sits  at  the  accountant's  desk  and  blots  his 
page  with  error.  It  takes  the  business  routes  over  the 
traveled  ways  and  writes  the  word  " infamy"  on  the 
business  man's  advertisement.  It  seeks  out  his  rivals 
and  enemies  and  whispers  to  them  the  awful  word 
"drunkard."  It  seeks  out  his  friends  and  teaches  them 
to  bow  their  heads  in  shame  while  murmuring  the  words 
of  pity.  When  all  business  relations  are  broken  and 
ruined  the  tyrant  of  slaves  turns  about  and  with  an  iron 
hand  he  grasps  the  man's  brain  and  crushes  reason, 
thought,  love  and  happiness  into  the  chaos  of  eternal 
ruin. 


PREFACE. 


I  have  endeavored  in  the  following  pages  to  set 
forth  in  detail  my  theory  that  inebriety  is  a  disease 
that  can  be  readily  cured,  and  that  it  is  not  heredi- 
tary. Hence  the  title,  "The  Non-Heredity  of 
Inebriety,"  as  expressive  of  the  central  idea  of  the 
questions  discussed. 

In  their  individual  and  social  relations  the  impor- 
tance of  the  questions  considered  is  second  to  none 
that  have  attracted  the  attention  of  thinking  people 
during  the  present  century. 

I  venture  to  express  the  hope  that  whatever  repe- 
tition or  rhetorical  fault  may  appear  in  this  volume 
may  find  excuse  in  the  endeavor  to  impress  and  fix 
in  mind,  by  the  employment  of  well  known  edu- 
cational methods,  line  upon  line  and  precept  upon 
precept,  the  statements  of  laws,  principles,  and  facts 

herein  laid  down. 

LESLIE  E.  KEELEY. 


THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF 
INEBRIETY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

MEDICAL  CREEDS  AXD  MEDICAL  DEVELOPMENT. 

ALL  men  who  have  read  medical  history  know 
the  general  steps  of  the  development  of 
medicine  as  a  science  and  art ;  those  who  have 
studied  the  pathological  sciences  and  therapeutical 
arts  know  that  each  step  has  been  creed-bound, 
having  been  taught  and  belie\  a  dogma. 

The  doctrine  of  the  humors  in  pathology — the 
wet,  dry,  and  solid  pathologies — -is  an  example  of 
these  dogmatic  theories  in  medical  development. 
Relating  to  cause,  the  most  diverse  theories  have 
been  believed.  Until  a  few  years  ago  no  definite, 
adequate  creed  for  disease  was  known,  and,  conse- 
quently, there  was  no  end  to  theoretical  can 
Heat,  cold,  rest,  labor,  overfeeding,  starvation, 
"  epidemic  constitution  of  the  air,"  poisons,  food, 
water,  heredity,  contagion,  infection,  overwork,  no 
work,  sin  and  the  moral  vices  were  alike  credited 
with  causing  disease. 

The  general  principle  I  wish  to  notice  is  that  in 
causation,  or  in  the  science  of  the  etiology  of  disease, 

9 


io         THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

the  law  is  that  like  causes,  meeting  with  like  resist- 
ance, produce  like  diseases.  It  is  also  a  law  that 
each  special  disease  has  its  special  cause. 

In  therapeutics,  or  cure,  I  wish  to  present  the 
principle,  or  law,  that  all  cures  are  special  in  char- 
acter. There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  general  cure  for 
special  diseases,  nor  is  there  any  such  thing  as  a 
general  cause  for  any  special  disease. 

Extremely  high  temperature  is  not  the  cause  of 
any  special  disease,  as  cholera  or  yellow  fever. 
Extremely  low  temperature  does  not  cause  pneu- 
monia or  rheumatism.  Insufficient  or  poor  diet 
does  not  cause  consumption  or  leprosy.  These 
diseases  have  each  a  special  cause. 

The  actual  cures  for  diseases  are  very  few  indeed. 
Nearly  all  cures  are  preventives.  The  reason  is 
that  remedies  are  too  general  for  special  diseases. 
It  was  undoubtedly  the  intention  of  the  Final 
Design  that  some  day  all  disease  should  disappear  ; 
but  it  must  be  the  result  of  prevention,  logically, 
rather  than  of  cure  ;  although  we  may  admit  that  the 
more  recent  discoveries  in  the  etiology  of  disease 
and  the  successful  methods  of  prevention  have  a 
certain  amount  of  curative  power. 

In  the  problem  of  cure  one  important  factor  is 
omitted  from  most  calculations.  This  is  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  degree  of  immunity,  which  is  the 
result  of  nearly  all  diseases.  It  is  this  development 
of  immunity  which  causes  the  termination  of  the 
disease  and  also  prevents  a  return,  or  a  relapse,  or 
another  attack  by  the  same  disease.  A  cure  for  any 


MEDICAL   CREEDS   AND   DEVELOPMENT.       n 

disease  verifies  itself  if  it  causes  the  abrupt  termina- 
tion of  the  disease  before  its  so-called  natural  course 
is    ended.      Whether   we    accept   the    doctrine    that 
"like  cures  like"   or  "unlike  cures  like  "   the  fact 
remains   that   remedies    of   a   general   character,    as 
used   in   the   treatment   of  special   diseases,  cure  or 
antagonize    results    or    symptoms    and    not    can 
The  remedies  do  not  cure  the  disease,  but  they  cure 
high   temperature,  low  temperature,   pain,  paralv 
heart    failure,    deficient    elimination,  and   other   like 
symptoms  and  results.     Too  high  or  too  low  blood 
pressure,  too  frequent  or    too  slow    heart  action    are 
examples    of    resultants    or    symptoms    of    disca- 
general  remedies  are  addressed  to  general  symptoms 
in    the   treatment   of    di  mptoms    are 

cured,   but  not  the  di  The  latter,  if  cured  at 

all,  is  done  by  a  more  specific  remedy  in  eaeh   a 

The    mycotic    di  are    each    caused     by    a 

special    ptomaine,    manufactured    by    a    special   mi- 
crobe.      The     fact     seems     paradoxical     that     this 
ptomaine  superinduces   the   disease   and   also  ca: 
the  termination  of  the  di  >r  its  cure,  as  well  as 

an   immunity  to   the   disease,  or   its   prevention;   but 
such  appears  to  be  the  truth. 

The  philosophy  of  this  pathology  appears  to  be 
that  the  germ  manufactures  the  poison,  which  is 
resisted  as  much  as  possible  by  the  tissue  cells. 
The  type  of  the  disease  is  determined  by  the  dif- 
ferent degrees  of  resistance  possessed  by  the  dif- 

•ut  tissues  and  organs.  In  time  the  cells  acquire 
a  tolerance  which  enable^  them  to  bear  all  the 


12          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

poison  the  germ  can  manufacture,  following  which 
the  disease  must  come  to  an  end.  This  acquired 
tolerance  to  the  poison  is  not  lost,  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  time,  by  the  cells,  and  while  it  lasts  the 
immunity  to  the  disease  is  secured.  Immunity  is 
effected  by  a  variation  of  the  cells  and  nuclei,  caused 
by  poisoning  them,  which  variation  enables  them  to 
resist  the  poison. 

In  the  treatment  of  a  disease  of  this  nature  it  is 
clear  that  unlike  and  general  remedies  have  very 
little  direct  effect.  Their  value  is  limited,  as  I  have 
already  indicated.  If  a  cure  is  effected  it  must  be 
either  by  the  poison  of  the  disease  itself,  or  by 
something  very  much  like  it. 

Late  experiments,  however,  prove  that  the  dis- 
ease poison  itself  is  a  cure  for  any  given  disease. 
Several  bacteriologists  have  demonstrated  that  the 
immune  blood,  or,  rather,  the  blood  of  an  animal 
containing  the  ptomaine  of  a  disease,  if  inoculated 
into  an  animal  having  the  disease,  will  cure  that  dis- 
ease ;  if  given  to  a  healthy  animal  it  will  prevent 
the  disease.  A  similar  poison  may  approach  this 
result;  but  the  poison  itself  of  any  disease  will  cure 
the  disease  and  also  prevent  it,  as  well  as  cause  it. 

Dr.  Koch's  tuberculin  was  a  remedy  of  this  na- 
ture. It  was  a  partial,  or  is  an  entire  failure,  because 
it  probably  contains  tubercle  bacilli  ;  but  principally 
for  the  reason  that  consumption  is  almost  an  excep- 
tion to  pathological  laws.  It  is  not,  however,  an 
entire  exception;  but  the  time  required  for  an 
acquirement  of  a  tolerance  to  the  poison  is  so  long 


MEDICAL   CREEDS   AND    DEVELOPMENT.       13 

in  consumption  that,  as  yet,  we  do  not  understand 
how  to  use  the  remedy.  In  the  future  all  similar 
remedies  for  the  treatment  of  the  acute  zymoses  will 
be  the  isolated  poisons  of  these  diseases.  These, 
like  the  remedies  for  scarlatina,  pneumonia,  typhoid, 
diphtheria,  and  the  whole  list,  will  be  put  up 
remedies  and  used  as  cures  and  preventives.  They 
will  be  absolutely  successful  because  their  use  will 
be  founded  upon  scientific  patholngv.  The  princi- 
ple of  "  like  cures  like  "  in  medicine  will  then  have 
its  triumphant  success.  I  do  not  doubt  that  the 
chemists  will  manufacture  the  ptomaines  by  synthe- 
sis from  organic  compounds  ;  or  that  the  materia 
medica  of  the  future  will  be  made  up  of  tl; 
special  cures  for  special  di  .  or  that  special 

diseases  will  be  partially  cured,  as  well  as  simply 
"treated,"  which  is  sometimes  very  different.  Such 
appear  to  be  modern  pathology  and  modern  cure-  ; 
but  the  struggling  development  of  medicine,  which 
has  led  up  to  this  station  of  science,  has  b< 
attended  by  bitter  warfare  and  has  come  up  through 
much  error  and  tribulation.  One  of  the  greatest 
difficulties  in  the  wav  of  medical  development  has 
been  the  formation  of  medical  creeds.  The  organi- 
zation of  a  body  of  doctrine  and  a  body  of  men  in 
anything  always  develops  and  formulates  a  creed. 
The  characteristic  of  these  creeds  is  that  no  one 
ventures  to  let  his  wanton  thought  and  experiments 
wander  outside  their  confines.  Jenncr  violated  the 
creeds  of  his  day,  as  also  did  Pasteur,  Koch,  and 
Hahnemann. 


H          THE   NON-HEREDITY"  OF   INEBRIETY. 

The  consequence  has  always  been  that  great  dis- 
coveries, whether  in  medicine  or  other  sciences, 
have  generally  been  made  by  creedless  men.  The 
germ  theory  and  its  verifications,  including  the 
modern  science  of  pathology,  immunity,  and  cure,  is 
probably  due  more  to  Pasteur  than  to  any  other  one 
man.  John  Tyndall  worked  out  the  science  of  the 
relation  of  bacteria  to  putrefaction,  thus  overturning 
Bastian's  theory  of  heterogenesis.  Pasteur  demon- 
strated or  verified  that  bacillus  anthrax  causes  splenic 
fever  and  that  a  variation  of  type  of  this  microbe 
could  prevent  the  disease  in  animals.  Tyndall  and 
Pasteur  were  not  physicians.  They  had  no  medical 
creed.  If  they  had  had  they  never  would  have 
meddled  with  bacteria  in  their  day.  But  their  dis- 
coveries, supplemented  by  other  workers,  underlie 
the  present  science  of  medicine.  In  medical  de- 
velopment creed  has  always  opposed  creed.  Out 
of  this  fact  much  good  has  been  derived.  "  Like 
cures  like"  is  one  of  the  medical  creeds  ;  "unlike 
cures  like"  is  another.  These  two  have  inevitably 
struggled  together.  The  struggle  has  not  always 
been  limited  to  actual  tests  of  merit,  but  politics, 
government,  authority,  religion,  and  all  have  been 
involved.  In  Europe  homeopathy  has  made  very 
little  progress,  comparatively,  as  a  distinct  organi- 
zation, owing  to  state  interference  or  disfavor.  But 
in  this  country  the  organization  is  strong,  as  a  result 
of  greater  medical  liberty.  The  pretense  of  "  regu- 
lar medicine  "  is  that  all  dogmas  are  rejected  ;  but 
the  meaning  is  that  all  new  things  are  rejected. 


MEDICAL  CREEDS  AND   DEVELOPMENT.       15 

The  germ  theory  was  ridiculed  for  fifteen  years, 
while  its  defenders  were  ranked  as  "quacks."  Elec- 
tricity, hydro  therapy,  massage,  all  were  classed 
in  their  beginning  as  quackery.  But  the  "  grand 
old  profession  "  generally  ends  by  adopting  every- 
thing. It  will  some  day,  if  its  morals  improve, 
adopt  all  the  pathies,  including  Christian  Science. 
It  will  fight  the  question  many  years,  possibly,  but 
will  some  day  incorporate  into  the  code  of  ethics  a 
provision  which  will  give  a  physician  a  propricl 
right  to  his  inventions  relating  to  surgical  instru- 
ments and  remedies.  All  ethics  except  medical 
ethics  now  grant  such  privileges.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  ten  commandments,  nor  in  the  sermon  on  the 
mount,  nor  in  the  Saviour's  amendments  to  the 
ethics  of  Moses  that  is  designed  to  prevent  any  man 
from  enjoying  the  rights  and  benefits  of  his  own 
labor  of  brain  or  muscles — his  inventions,  his  dis- 
coveries, his  thoughts,  his  property.  Thou  shalt 
not  covet  thv  neighbor's  hor  .  monev,  sto 

bonds,  lands,  wife,  nor  his  proprietary  rights  that 
are  his  by  inheritance,  acquirement,  or  discovery — 
even  including  his  cures  for  disease. 

The  development  of  pathology  from  the  humoral 
to  the  cellular  was  a  great  stride  of  the  human  mind 
toward  the  station  of  scientific  truth.  But  Virchow's 
idea  that  all  life  as  well  as  disease  originates  in  the 
cells  was  a  violation  of  the  existing  creeds  of  that 
day.  The  old  theories  died  hard.  For  some  rea- 
son the  human  mind  is  extremely  tenacious  in  its 
hold  upon  formulated  opinions. 


16          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

Extremes  sometimes  meet.  The  treatment  of 
disease  was  empirical  when  homeopathy  was  origi- 
nated and  its  creed  formulated ;  heroic  doses  of 
poisonous  drugs  were  the  remedies.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  more  harm  originated  from  the  remedies 
than  from  the  diseases.  Hahnemann  went  to  the 
other  extreme,  and  his  homeopathy,  or  his  reme- 
dies, was  truly  infinitesimal.  The  therapeutic  pen- 
dulum swung  to  its  opposite  extreme  and  limit. 

But  the  blessing  of  this  new  method  in  medical 
practice  was  great  indeed.  If  it  did  no  other  ser- 
vice it  lessened  the  dose  of  poisonous  remedies  and 
gave  nature's  method  of  cure  by  nature's  own  reme- 
dies a  better  chance  for  action.  The  so-called 
dogma  of  "  like  cures  like  "  was  a  medical  beatitude 
and  a  divine  beneficence.  If  early  homeopathy  had 
vagaries  as  alleged,  it  can  truly  be  said  that  even 
"  its  errors  leaned  to  virtue's  side,"  and  its  mistakes 
were  conservative  in  relation  to  human  longevity. 

Herbert  Spencer  says  in  substance  that  all  error 
contains  a  kernel  of  truth  and  all  truth  an  element 
of  error.  The  proposition  that  "like  cures  like" 
is  certainly  a  truth  in  therapeutics  ;  but  there  is  also 
some  truth  in  the  dogma  that  "unlike  cures  like." 
But  both  these  cures  are  limited  to  symptoms  and 
results.  Neither  method  prevents  the  natural  course 
and  duration  of  a  disease.  I  think  there  is  no  sub- 
ject more  interesting  than  the  comparative  study  of 
these  two  principles  of  cure. 

To  explain  both  methods  I  will  offer  the  propo- 
sition ( I )  that  a  large  dose  of  any  given  drug 


MEDICAL  CREKDS   AND    DEVELOPMENT.       17 

causes  symptoms  correspondingly  opposite  and 
antagonistic  to  a  small  dose  of  the  same  drug  ;  (2) 
in  relation  to  pathology,  all  symptoms  are  the 
resultants  of  physiological  force  antagonized  by 
pathological  force. 

Now  to  understand  these  propositions  I  will 
notice  blood  pressure  and  the  heart's  action  in  dis- 
ease, and  the  effect  of  remedies. 

A  disease  poison  ('ptomaine)  may  increase  the 
blood  pressure  and  increase  the  heart's  action. 

This  effect  is  a  resultant  of  two  forces — the  poi- 
son and  the  physiological  force.  But  every  function 
is  likewise  the  resultant  of  two  opposing  physiolog- 
ical forces.  The  heart's  frequency,  or  rate,  is  the 
result  of  the  motor  energy  resisted  by  the  inhibitory 
energy  of  the  nerve  centres  and  heart.  If  the  h> 
beats  are  too  frequent  in  fever  it  is  b  the 

fever  poison  either  stimulates  or  weakens  the  inhib- 
itory force.      Suppose  now  the   physician  wishe- 
lessen    the    frequency    of    the    heart    during    fever, 
lie  may  do  this   by  giving   a   large    poisonous   d 
of  a  drug  which  will  weaken  the  motor  force  of  the 
heart  ;   or  he   may   give  a    small    dose   of   the    same 
drug,  which  will  strengthen  the  inhibitory  force  and 
thus    produce   the   same   effect.     The  advantage  of 
giving  the  small  dose  is   readily  appreciated.      It   is 
far  safer  in  therapeutics  to  stimulate  than   para! 

The  general  law  of  this  action  of  drugs,  or  that 
a  small  dose  of  a  drug  has  an  opposite  effect  to  a 
large  dose  of  the  same,  drug,  is  easily  demonstrated. 
We  know  that  this  is  true  of  atropia.  It  is  also  true 


i8          THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

with  the  action  of  strychnia.  A  small  dose  of 
whisky  is  a  stimulant,  but  a  large  quantity  paralyzes. 
Small  quantities  of  arsenic  tone  the  stomach  and 
increase  the  appetite  and  digestion  ;  a  large  quan- 
tity causes  inflammation  of  the  stomach,  vomiting, 
and  entire  loss  of  appetite  and  digestion. 

This  rule  of  drug  action  holds  good  in  all  drugs. 
A  small  dose  of  a  given  drug  stimulates  certain 
organs  and  tissues,  while  a  large  dose  has  an  oppo- 
site effect  upon  the  same  organs  and  tissues. 

But  a  further  illustration  of  this  fact  occurs  in 
pathology,  particularly  in  malarial  poisoning,  or 
in  any  ptomaine  poisoning.  Just  before  a  paroxysm 
of  ague  the  patient  will  feel  remarkably  well.  Peo- 
ple subject  to  chronic  malarial  poisoning  learn  to 
know  that  an  unusual  feeling  of  health  and  strength 
with  great  appetite  presages  an  attack  of  fever,  or 
neuralgia,  or  dyspepsia,  or  whatever  other  type  or 
form  of  trouble  their  disorder  may  assume.  - 

The  first  effect  of  all  ptomaine  poisoning  is 
stimulating.  When  the  disease  begins  and  the 
ptomaine  in  small  quantity  enters  the  circulation, 
the  appetite,  muscular  strength,  mental  activity,  and 
all  are  stimulated.  The  patient  will  volunteer  the 
statement  that  he  never  felt  so  well.  In  a  day  or 
two  the  poison  has  increased  in  quantity,  and  now, 
where  once  was  increased  activity  and  good  feeling,  is 
illness,  or  the  very  opposite  effect ;  both  conditions 
being  caused  by  the  small  and  large  doses  of  the 
same  poison. 

The   two   great    creeds   or    dogmas    of    medical 


MEDICAL   CREEDS  AND   DEVELOPMENT.       19 

practice  hang  upon  the  two  extremes  of  drug 
action  in  the  small  and  large  doses.  There  is  no 
question  that  there  is  truth  and  usefulness  in  both 
methods  ;  but  there  is  no  doubt,  also,  that  scientific 
cures  are  homeopathic  in  their  action. 

The  use  of  tetanoxin,  or  the  immune  blood  of 
an  animal  which  has  had  tetanus,  as  a  cure  for 
tetanus,  is  homeopathic  in  principle.  The  further 
recent  experiments  with  the  immune  blood  of  other 
diseases  which  have  been  verified  bv  Tii^'ona,  the 
Klemperers,  and  others  all  verify  this  fact.  The  prin- 
ciple involved  in  vaccination  and  also  in  all  inocula- 
tion for  the  prevention  of  diseases  is  "  like  cures 
like."  The  like  causes  the  establishment  of  a  t< 
ance  to  the  poison  in  the  tissue  cells,  which  is 
specific  cure,  or  the  cure  of  special  diseases  bv  spe- 
cial remedies. 

The  final  step,  then,  in  the  development  of 
medicine  would  appear  to  be  the  dogma  of  special 
cures  for  special  diseases  ;  the  demonstration  is 
that  special  cures,  so  far  as  known,  act  upon  the 
homeopathic  principle. 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  special 
cures  arc>  not  aimed  at  results  but  at  diseases.  Thev 
are  not  symptom  remedies.  Curing  a  symptom 
does  not  cure  a  di-  it  onlv  antagonizes  the 

results  of  disease. 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE   MODERN   PROGRESS   OF   MEDICAL   SCIENCE. 

UNTIL  within  eighteen  years  the  medical  pro- 
fession did  not  know  the  cause  of  disease. 
This  fact  seems  incredible  and  is  a  confession  that  few 
care  to  make.  Within  that  time  Pasteur,  Koch,  Stern- 
berg,  and  many  other  workers  in  the  field  of  micro- 
scopic research  have  demonstrated  that  the  microbe 
causes  disease.  Pasteur's  clearest  verification,  per- 
haps, was  the  proof  that  the  bacillus  anthracis  is  the 
cause  of  anthrax,  or  splenic  fever,  in  the  lower 
animals  and  man.  Within  the  same  time  Dr.  Koch 
has  overturned  all  medical  theories,  guesses,  doc- 
trines, and  pretenses  by  his  demonstration  that 
bacillus  tuberculosis  is  actually  the  cause  of  con- 
sumption and  all  tuberculous  diseases. 

The  reason  that  the  real  cause  of  disease  remained 
unknown  for  ages  and  centuries  of  medical  practice 
was  because  the  microbe  is  a  microscopic  plant  very 
difficult  to  discover  and  study.  But  it  was  finally 
discovered.  For  many  years  after  the  first  bacterium 
was  actually  seen  no  one  believed  that  such  an 
insignificant  organism  could  cause  disease.  In  fact 
no  one  had  the  least  conception  of  the  idea  of 
parasitism  in  general  or  particular  in  relation  to 
disease.  It  was  known  that  parasitism  was  a  bio- 

20 


PROGRESS   OF   MEDICAL   SCIENCE.  21 


logical  principle,  but  none  thought,  at  least  the  pro- 
fession did  not  think  or  believe,  that  parasitism  is 
the  great  pathological  force  which  underlies  the 
phenomena  of  disease,  as  essentially  causative  in 
this  relation  as  the  force  of  gravity  is  to  the  phe- 
nomena of  astronomy.  A  short  time  previous  to 
Dr.  Koch's  discovery  that  consumption  is  caused  by 
a  germ,  Dr.  Bastian  was  making  some  remarkable 
experiments  with  the  microscope.  Dr.  Bastian  was 
not  working  particularly  as  an  investigator  into  the 
cause  of  disease,  but  in  the  general  field  of  biology. 
The  doctor  took  some  beef  decoction,  as  well  as 
aqueous  preparations  of  turnip,  p-  ind  h.'iv, 

which  he  exposed  to  the  air  until  th  turning 

putrid,  when  he  examined  a  drop  of  the  fluid  with 
his  microscope  and  found  it  teeming  with  lii 

Bastian's  conclusion  was  that  life  springs  from 
decay  ;  that  in  biologv  death  is  the  true  parent  of 
life.  His  experiments  seemed  to  prove  this  fact.  If 
he  made  a  fresh  turnip  infusion  and  examined  it  no 
life  could  be  seen  ;  but  in  a  few  davs,  as  soon  as 
there  were  evidences  of  decay,  life  would  appear  — 
small  in  form  and  tvpe.  but  countless  in  number. 

This  discovery  of  Dr.  Bastian's  excited  not  only 
the  biological  scientific  world,  but  also  the  theo- 
logical centers.  The  principle  of  the  scientists  was 
that  life  is  derived  from  life,  or  like  begets  like  ; 
but  Bastian  set  up  the  doctrine  that  unlike  begets 
like,  and  called  this  new  discovery,  because  it  was 
different  from  old  theories,  heterogen< 

During  the  next  five   years  the  whole  interested 


22          THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

scientific  world  may  be  said  to  have  occupied  itself  in 
looking  down  the  tube  of  the  microscope  at  an  in- 
fusion of  hay  or  turnip.  All  people  could  go  over 
his  steps  and  verify  Dr.  Bastian's  simple  observa- 
tions. All  could  see  that  life  was  the  product  of 
decay,  or  that  a  vegetable  or  animal  decoction  or 
infusion,  as  soon  as  it  began  to  ferment  or  decay, 
produced  life. 

These  living  organisms  of  Bastian's  were  deter- 
mined to  be  bacteria.  People  who  were  anxious 
lest  their  idols  might  be  in  danger  argued  that  if  it 
were  true  that  decay  produced  living  bacteria,  this 
did  not  account  for  the  origin  of  man  or  the  creation 
of  species,  nor  was  it  a  general  principle  of  the 
creation  or  origin  of  life.  The  discovery  of  hetero- 
genesis  was  a  menace  to  science  and  theology  alike. 
The  fundamental  truths  of  each,  relating  to  this  new 
discovery,  seemed  equally  in  danger  of  destruction. 

The  fermentation  of  matter  containing  no  nitro- 
gen and  producing  such  products  as  acetic  acid,  and 
the  putrefaction  of  organic  matter  containing  nitro- 
gen were  supposed  to  be  due  to  chemical  changes 
brought  about  by  exposure  to  oxygen.  All  organic 
decay  was  supposed  to  be  oxidation  and  due  to  the 
attraction  of  oxygen  for  organic  bases  and  ele- 
ments. 

This  doctrine  is  fundamental  in  every  text  book 
of  chemistry  that  is  over  eight  years  old.  Disease 
was  supposed  to  be  caused  by  a  chemical  poison 
generated  by  putrefactive  decay ;  but  if  physicians 
observed  that  the  specific  infection  of  a  disease  ap- 


PROGRESS  OF   MEDICAL   SCIENCE.  23 


peared  to  be  multiplied  in  quantity  as  a  disease  or 
an  epidemic  progressed,  their  explanation  was  that 
disease  increased  the  amount  of  the  disease  infection. 

This  was  the  state  of  medical  and  biological 
science  when  John  Tyndall  took  up  the  subject  of 
Bastian's  doctrines  and  experiments.  By  an  elab- 
orate series  of  experiments  Tyndall  proved  that  the 
very  opposite  of  Bastian's  conclusion  was  true- 
that  instead  of  decay,  putrefaction,  and  fermentation 
being  the  origin  of  life  or  of  living  bacteria,  the 
bacteria  were  the  cause  of  putrefaction  and  fermen- 
tation. 

Tyndall  disproved  Bastian's  experimental  errors. 
He  showed  that  all  organic   matter  exposed   to   the 
air  was  subject  to  attack  and   destruction    bv   tl; 
bacterial    agents,    and    proved    further    that   if    any 
organic  matter,  flesh  or  v  'ed   her- 

metically, so  that  the  air  could  not  reach  it,  it  would 
never  putrefy  or  decay. 

Empiricism  is  always  in  advance  of  scientific 
planation.  The  fact  was  a  very  old  one  in  practical 
use  that  the  preservation  of  foods,  vegetable  or  ani- 
mal, was  accomplished  by  these  methods—  by  dry- 
ing them,  treating  them  with  certain  d; 
creosote  or  common  salt,  or  else  by  hermetically 
sealing  them.  No  one  could  explain  the  reason  of 
the  success  of  these  methods,  except  upon  the  the- 
ory that  they  in  some  manner  prevented  the  action 
of  oxygen.  The  explanation  was  very  clear  when 
Tyndall  demonstrated  that  the  spores  or  seeds  of 
the  bacteria  are  everywhere  present  in  the  air  ;  that 


24         THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

excluding  the  air  from  any  organic  matter  excludes 
the  spores  ;  that  common  salt,  creosote,  etc.,  used 
to  preserve  foods,  are  poisonous  to  bacteria  and 
prevent  their  action  ;  and  that  absence  of  moisture 
prevents  germination  of  seeds. 

Tyndall's  discovery  that  the  air  is  always  and 
almost  everywhere  charged  with  these  spores  is  sci- 
entific and  poetical  as  well.  His  investigations  of 
the  sunbeam  led  to  this  discovery.  He  discovered 
that  a  sunbeam  was  caused  by  refraction  of  light  by 
particles  of  organic  matter  and  not  of  inorganic 
dust  as  supposed.  He  demonstrated  that  no  matter 
how  heavily  the  air  may  be  charged  with  dust 
alone,  no  sunbeam  can  be  produced;  after  which  he 
verified  that  the  inorganic  dust  of  the  air,  which 
causes  a  sunbeam,  is  the  spores  or  seeds  of  bac- 
teria. 

Tyndall's  experiments  were  published  serially  in 
scientific  journals  as  they  progressed,  while  the 
scientific  world  followed  them  with  most  intense 
interest. 

His  experiments  seemed  to  fulfil  the  prophecy 
that  some  day  the  least  shall  become  the  greatest. 
The  significance  of  the  relation  of  these  smallest  of 
living  things  to  human  life  and  death  is  of  the 
greatest  importance.  In  fact  bacteria  would  seem 
to  be  the  arbiters  of  human  destiny,  to  determine 
the  decrees  of  human  fate.  They  underlie  very 
much  of  the  foundation  of  the  great  problems  of  life 
and  disease,  of  death  and  of  human  science  in  rela- 
tion to  biology. 


PROGRESS  OF   MEDICAL   SCIENCE.  25 

Tyndall's  remarkable  experiments  merit  more 
than  a  passing  notice,  in  consequence  of  the  impor- 
tance of  their  bearing  upon  medical  science. 

The  physiological  products  of  the  infectious 
microbe  are  known  to  cause  special  diseases.  The 
physiological  products  of  bacteria  which  cause  dis- 
ease are  similar  to  those  of  bacteria  which  cause 
the  putrefaction  of  organic  matter,  or  matter  which 
contains  nitrogen.  These  products  are  the  nitrog- 
enous gases, —  in  fact,  sewer  gas.  As  these  pro- 
ducts arc  rapidly  oxidized  they  are  probably  but  a 
small  factor  in  the  symptoms  of  dise, 

In  a  general  sense  thes<  .nous,  and 

when  inhaled,  if  strofl  /h,  tliev  can  cause  death. 

The  excremental  products  of  bacterial  plants 
which  cause  fermentation  are  alcohol  and  ac< 
butyric,  and  lactic  acids;  and  there  is  also  what  is 
called  a  viscous  fermentation.  Fermentation  is  not 
limited  to  the  bacteria;  the  yeast  plant  and  certain 
algre  and  fungi  have  the  power  of  causing  the 
phenomena  of  fermentation  of  various  substano 

The  phenomena  of  fermentation  are  vital  and 
chemical.  Observing  the  process  we  understand 
that  some  form  of  life  is  feeding  upon  the  material 
undergoing  the  ferment  and  that  the  material  pas 
through  the  living1  organism,  vicldmg  up  force  and 
substance  to  maintain  the  structure,  work,  and  life 
of  the  organism.  Bv  chemical  tests  the  fermented 
substance  is  found  to  be  changed  in  its  chemical 
structure.  As  a  rule  it  has  added  oxvgen.  Before 
the  discovery  of  bacteria  all  fermentation  was  sup- 


26          THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

posed  for  this  reason  to  be  caused  by  the  action  of 
oxygen. 

Of  course  the  product  of  fermentation,  in  any 
given  case,  is  the  excrementary  product  of  the  organ- 
ism causing  the  ferment. 

The  principal  known  ferments  are  : 

(1)  Alcoholic  fermentation  of  sugar. 

(2)  Acetic  fermentation  of  alcohol. 

(3)  Lactic,  butyric,  and  viscous  fermentation  of 
sugar. 

(4)  Ammoniacal  fermentation  of  urea. 

(5)  Disease  and  putrefaction,  or  nitrification. 
The  most  anciently   known   and   cultivated  type 

of  fermentation  is  the  changing  of  sugar  into  alco- 
hol by  the  yeast  plant.  As  thus  produced  alcohol 
is  the  excrementory  product  of  this  plant,  along 
with  carbonic  dioxide. 

The  acetic  acid  fermentation  of  alcohol,  or  the 
changing  of  wine  into  vinegar,  is  also  a  process 
long  known  and  utilized.  So  far  as  known  the 
organism  which  thus  consumes  alcohol  and  pro- 
duces vinegar  is  the  only  living  creation  which  can 
live  on  alcohol  without  drunkenness.  This  organ- 
ism is  a  species  of  bacteria,  technically  called,  as  a 
species,  the  mycoderma  aceti.  The  genus  to  which 
it  belongs  is  named  microbacteria. 

These  little  organisms  form  a  thin  vail  upon  the 
surface  of  wine  or  other  liquid,  which  is  smooth  at 
first,  but  becomes  wrinkled  and  is  submerged  with 
some  difficulty.  This  vail  is  composed  of  countless 
numbers  of  these  organisms. 


PROGRESS  OF   MEDICAL   S<  27 

The  mycoderma  aceti,  if  sunk  beneath  the  sur- 
face of  the  wine,  will  still  live,  but  it  ceases  to  pro- 
duce vinegar.  The  reason  is  that  it  must  have  oxy- 
gen, which  it  obtains  from  the  air  while  in  this 
surface  position.  When  thus  placed  it  takes  the 
alcohol  from  below  and  the  oxygen  from  above, 
producing  vinegar  as  an  excrementary  product. 

The  lactic,  butyric,  and  viscous  fermentation- 
all  the   work   of   respective   species   of   bacteria,   as 
they   act   upon   substances   containing   sugar,  or  as 
they  consume  these  substances  as  food. 

The  typical  lactic  acid  fermentation  is  witnessed 
in  the  souring  of  milk.  It  seems  almost  impossible 
to  collect  milk  without  the  contained  organism  of 
the  lactic  ferment.  The  organism  withstands  a 
great  amount  of  boiling,  but  certain  germii. 
glycerine,  or  salicylic  acid,  greatlv  retard  its  develop- 
ment. 

The   ammoniacal    fermentation    of    urea    is    per- 
formed by   a  species  of   bacteria,  which  acts  upon 
this  animal  excretory  product  and  converts    it   into 
ammonia.      The   organism    creates    disease   by  acci- 
dentally  getting  into  the  bladder  and  setting  up  its 
peculiar   ferment.      It  is  readily  destroved  bv  ro 
cin,  or  boracic   acid.      The   name    of   the    speci< 
micrococcus  urea,  and  it  is  a  sphero-bacterium, 
in  chains. 

But  the  widest  field  of  fermentation  comprises 
the  action  of  the  virulent  microbe  proper,  and  cm- 
braces  its  relation  upon  both  dead  and  living  organic 
matter  containing  nitrogen.  As  a  rule  the  alcoholic 


28         THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

and  acid  ferments  do  not  make  a  poison  independent 
of  the  excrementary  products.  But  the  many 
species  of  microbe  which  cause  disease  and  putre- 
faction manufacture  a  poison,  an  alkaloid,  called 
ptomaine.  This  word  was  taken  from  the  Greek, 
meaning  cadaver,  and  ptomaines  are  so  called  be- 
cause when  first  discovered  they  were  found  in 
cadavers  and  were  supposed  to  be  incidental  products 
of  the  decomposition  of  the  organic  tissues  by  the 
influence  of  oxygen. 

So  far  as  known  all  disease  microbes  live  in  dead 
organic  matter.  They  change  the  matter  into 
sewer  gas.  As  the  manufacture  of  ptomaines  is 
a  part  of  their  physiology,  all  decaying  and  rotting 
organic  matter  is  liable  to  contain  these  poisons. 
This  is  the  reason  that  ice  cream,  canned  meats,  old 
sausage,  cheese,  etc.,  are  sometimes  poisonous. 

The  ptomaine  is  the  weapon  of  the  microbe.  It 
is  made  as  other  plants  make  poisonous  alkaloids — 
strychnia,  quinia,  atropia,  hyoscyamia  —  and  for  the 
same  purpose  ;  for  offense  and  defense. 

The  poison  of  the  microbe  answers  the  same  end 
as  the  canine  tooth,  the  beak,  claw,  and  horn  of 
animals.  The  microbe  does  not  need  its  poison  ex- 
cept when  living  on  tissue  cells  that  are  alive.  It 
first  kills  the  cells  and  then  consumes  them,  pro- 
ducing the  definite  symptoms,  conditions,  and  path- 
ology of  disease. 

As  a  rule  the  fermentative  excretory  products  are 
poisonous  to  the  organisms  which  produce  them, 
although  they  may  not  be  to  others.  The  rule  is 


PROGRESS  OF   MEDICAL   SCIENCE.  29 

that  no  organism  can  long  live  exposed  to  its  own 
waste  products.  Urea  is  the  principal  leucomaine 
of  the  waste  products  of  animals  and  is  a  deadly 
poison  to  all  living  creatures.  Other  leucomaines 
of  a  poisonous  nature  are  excreted  by  the  lungs,  in 
addition  to  carbonic  dioxide.  It  was  by  these  poi- 
sons that  the  great  mortality  was  caused  in  the 
"Black  Hole"  of  Calcutta  among  a  company  of 
British  soldiers  confined  there  by  an  Indian  nabob. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  ventilation  of  house 
so  essential.  People  are  killed  in  unventilated  rooms 
by  slow  poisoning,  caused  by  breathing  over  again 
the  respiratory  leucomaines — their  own  waste  pro- 
ducts. The  biological  sanitary  law  is,  relating  to 
all  forms  of  life  of  the  animal  kingdom  at  least, 
that  no  organism  can  maintain  a  healthy  existence 
exposed  to  the  poison  of  its  own  exerementary 
waste  products.  We  find  that  this  law  holds  good 
relating  to  the  microbe. 

The  microbe  causes  cancer,  consumption,  the 
diseases  of  childhood,  the  epidemics,  the  blood 
poisoning  of  wounds.  It  causes  insanity  and  the 
various  degenerations  of  brain,  liver,  kidneys,  and 
other  organs.  For  this  reason  these  diseases  are- 
called  zymotic,  the  meaning  of  which  is  ferment. 
When  the  microbe  successfully  invades  an  animal  it 
sets  up  the  process  of  fermentative  putrefaction. 
The  forces  of  the  body  resist  the  poison,  and  the 
great  resultant  of  these  forces  acting  in  opposition 
underlie  patholoL 

The  cancer  cell  is  the  product  of  the  reproductive 


30          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

force  of  the  tissue  cell,  modified  by  the  ptomaine  of 
a  microbe.  The  various  cells  of  degeneration  of 
various  tissues  are  produced  in  the  same  manner. 
If  the  ptomaine  is  too  virulent,  the  cells  are  simply 
destroyed.  If  there  is  a  semi-successful  resistance, 
the  product  is  a  new  cell  and  a  new  pathological,  or 
histological,  creation,  which  is  unlike  any  tissue  of 
the  body;  and  this  takes  the  place  or  assumes  the 
relation  of  a  parasite  of  the  body. 

The  ferment  of  the  microbe  in  the  living  body 
underlies  all  disease  and  the  moral  trouble  of 
the  world.  It  destroys  life.  But  for  the  microbe 
there  is  no  good  reason  why  the  average  duration 
of  life  should  not  be  extended  to  several  hundred 
years. 

I  regard  the  chief  cause  of  drunkenness,  or  the 
wide  universal  use  of  alcohol,  to  be  due  to  the  poi- 
soning caused  by  the  germ  of  disease  and  the 
unsanitary  public  putrefaction  of  dead  organic 
matter. 

But  it  is  clear  that  we  are  on  the  eve  of  discov- 
eries which  will  cure  diseases.  A  cure  will  be  found 
in  the  discovery  of  some  single  remedy  which  will 
destroy  the  microbe,  whether  out  of  the  body,  or 
on  its  surface,  or  within.  It  is  certain  that  such  a 
remedy  is  somewhere  and  that  it  can  be  found.  I 
may  say  that  I  have  been  experimenting  on  this 
problem  ever  since  the  verification  of  Koch  and 
Pasteur,  which  proved  the  question  that  the  microbe 
causes  disease.  The  question  was  at  once  clear  to 
my  mind  that  if  disease  has  a  single  cause,  which  is 


PROGRESS  OF   MEDICAL   SCIENCE.  31 

a   living  organism,  a  single  remedy  must  be  found 
which  will  destroy  the  cause  of  disease. 

In  relation  to  Tyndall's  experiment  with  the  sun- 
beam it  would  appear  that  he  made  conclusive  proof. 
By  "sunbeam"   he  meant  the  illuminated   rays  of 
light  passing  into  a  room  through  a  hole  in  a  shutter. 
Tyndall  first  experimented  with  this  phenomenon, 
and  learned  that  by  holding  the  flame   of   a  lamp 
under  or  directly  in  a  portion  of  the  sunbeam  the 
would  disappear  within  a  certain  radius  of  the 
lame.  This  led  him  to  believe  that  the  flame  burned 
ip  the  particles  that  caused  the  refraction  of  light, 
'hich  it  could   not   do  were  the   refracting  matter 
inorganic.      He  then  made  a  box  with   glass  sides, 
laving  holes  at  the  ends  through   which  he  j», 
;he  sun's  rays,  creating  a  beam,  visible  in  the   box 
:hrough  the  glass  sides  ;   after  which  he   introduced 
icat  and  vegetable   decoctions   into  the  box,   when 
ie  found  that  they  fermented  and   that  bacteri 

1  in  the  ferments.      He  then  coated  his  box  with 
glycerine,  covering  the  end  openings   with   glass  to 
exclude    air,   and    in    time    he    could    get    no    sun- 
>eam  in  the  box.     The  bacteria  were  caught  by  the 
glycerine.      He  afterwards,  bv  an  ingenious  contriv- 
ince,  introduced  the  meat   and   vegetable  infusions 
into  the  box  and  found  that  they  would  not  ferment. 
His  verification  appeared   to   be  that   the   spores 
»f   bacteria   from    the    floating    bacteria   of    the  air 
cause    all    fermentation,  and  that  excluding  the  air 
from  fermentable  matter  prevents  its  putrefaction, 
'cause  it  keeps  out  the  spores. 


32          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

This  was  the  experiment  which  upset  the  doc- 
trine of  heterogenesis  suggested  by  Dr.  Bastian.  It 
gave  a  great  impetus  to  the  logical  medical  mind, 
which  reasoned  that  if  bacteria  caused  fermentation 
they  may  cause  disease.  In  a  few  years  the  labors 
of  Pasteur,  Koch,  and  many  others  verified  the  truth 
of  this  hypothesis^ 

The  discoveries  of  Dr.  Koch,  Louis  Pasteur,  John 
Tyndall,  and  their  co-laborers  certainly  mark  an 
epoch  in  the  evolution  of  science  and  mental  de- 
velopment. It  is  only  eighteen  years  since  medi- 
cine could  lay  any  claim  to  any  of  the  factors  of  an 
exact  science.  But  it  is  not  more  than  eight  years 
since  the  science  of  bacteriology  in  relation  to  diseases 
really  became  the  working  basis  of  medical  practice 
and  thought.  The  doubt  and  discussion  exceeded 
everything  of  the  kind  in  the  history  of  medicine. 
The  demonstrations  of  Dr.  Koch  were  ridiculed  and 
professionally  anathematised  for  five  years.  The 
creeds  of  the  medical  profession  were  fixed  and 
powerful.  Dogmatic  pathology  and  dogmatism  in 
medical  practice  ruled  the  profession.  The  classifi- 
cation of  diseases  was  based  upon  symptoms,  without 
reference  to  the  cause  of  disease.  Pathology  gave 
a  record  of  results  with  unlike  causes  as  numerous 
as  the  conditions  of  life — the  climate  and  all  the 
phenomena  of  accident  and  good  and  evil  in  human 
environment.  The  causes  of  disease  included  all 
things  in  the  earth  and  all  things  of  mind  and  body. 
The  most  unlike  causes  were  credited  with  similar 
results  in  the  production  of  disease.  The  demon- 


PROGRESS  OF   MEDICAL   SCIENCE.  33 

stations  of  Dr.  Koch  were  new  in  medicine.  Here- 
tofore the  logic  relating  to  the  cause  of  disease  was 
deductive,  and  based  on  a  dogma  of  belief  in  medi- 
cal practice.  The  various  organizations  among  the 
medical  schools  formulated  their  creeds  from  dog- 
matic generalities  rather  than  from  laws  discovered 
from  the  verification  of  facts  relating  to  the  cause 
of  disease.  They  did  not  know  the  cause  of  dis- 
ease. Dr.  Koch's  demonstrated  discoveries  made  a 
science  of  medicine  possible.  It  made  sanitation  a 
science.  It  taught  the  mutual  relations  of  living 
things  to  each  other  in  the  problem  of  life  and 
death.  It  taught  that  parasitism  is  the  great  bio- 
logical principle  which  underlies  disease,  or  that 
parasitism  is  the  fundamental  force  of  pathology. 

The  discovery  by  Charles  Darwin  of  the  law  of 
natural  selection  and  its  application  to  the  origin  of 
species  was  an  induction  which  overturned  many 
creeds  in  science  and  greatly  advanced  the  human 
mind  in  methods  of  thought.  But  the  discovery, 
although  it  develops  the  public  mind,  has  not  the 
element  of  practical  benefit  that  is  given  by  the 
verification  that  parasitism  underlies  disease.  No 
discovery  has  ever  been  made  that  is  of  so  great 
benefit  to  the  human  race.  The  knowledge  it  gives 
means,  eventually,  the  prevention  and  cure  of  all 
diseases  and  a  great  lengthening  of  the  average 
duration  of  human  life.  To  live  well  and  to  be  able 
to  answer  the  question,  "Is  life  worth  living?"  a 
man  must  live  long.  His  diseases  must  be  destroyed 
and  the  heredity  of  old  age  be  far  removed  from  its 


34          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

present  standard  in  relation  to  time.  This  discovery 
makes  it  a  certainty  that  human  death,  aside  from 
accident,  need  be  only  from  old  age  and  that  the 
source  of  the  greatest  sorrow  of  the  world  will  be 
supplanted  by  euthanasia. 

No  one  to-day,  thinking  over  these  facts,  but 
will  express  surprise  that  the  medical  profession  had 
no  science  in  medical  practice,  nor  knew  the  cause 
of  disease  until  within  so  short  a  time,  and  that  it 
should  have  delayed  so  long  in  its  acceptance.  The 
first  question  can  be  answered  satisfactorily  by  the 
fact  that  the  discovery  of  disease  ranks  all  other 
discoveries  in  scientific  and  vital  importance;  there- 
fore, in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  mental  evolu- 
tion, it  could  not  have  been  made  earlier.  The 
slow  acceptance  of  the  discovery  depends  upon  the 
fact  that  formulated  creeds  and  beliefs  in  the  mind 
are  most  difficult  to  displace,  even  by  a  demonstra- 
tion. I  give  these  as  general  facts  or  principles, 
putting  out  of  the  problem  the  personal  equation  of 
professional  envy  and  jealousy. 

Dr.  Koch  in  future  years  will  be  given  full  credit 
for  the  greatest  discovery  in  medicine.  He  will 
rank  in  medical  science  as  Bacon  now  does  in  gen- 
eral science  and  in  relation  to  inductive  logic.  His- 
tory will  take  away  the  personal  equation  of  con- 
temporary workers  and  inventors  and  preserve  only 
the  great  general  principle  that  Koch  discovered. 
History  will  never  bear  the  record  of  the  criticism 
of  the  medical  press  which  for  several  years  was 
burdened  with  this  kind  of  literature. 


PROGRESS  OF   MEDICAL   SCIENCE.  35 

To-day  there  are  only  a  few  old  fossils  left  who 
do  not  accept  the  germ  theory  of  disease.  These 
gentlemen  are  too  old  to  learn  new  things  and  their 
brains  are  not  plastic  enough  to  dismiss  old  creeds. 
They  will  die  in  their  doubts  and  be  forgotten. 

It  is  now  about  thirty-five  years  since  the  medical 
profession  discovered,  or  rather  admitted,  that  the 
zymotic  or  preventable  diseases  terminate  after  a 
specific  duration  by  natural  laws.  The  disease  ter- 
minates in  recovery  or  death,  with  or  without  treat- 
ment. This  law  holds  good  with  such  diseases  as 
small-pox,  scarlet  fever,  typhoid,  rind  like  diseases. 
This  was  once  called  "spontaneous  termination," 
but  wrongfully  so,  for  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
"spontaneous"  in  nature;  that  is,  there  is  no  phe- 
nomenon in  nature  which  is  not  the  offspring  of 
other  phenomena.  One  might  as  well  talk  about 
the  spontaneous  origin  of  species,  or  the  spontane- 
ous origin  of  disease. 

Before  the  discoveries  of  Dr.  Koch  no  one  could 
explain  what  caused  disease,  or  what  determined  its 
phenomena,  duration,  and  termination.  All  that 
could  be  said  was  that,  by  the  law  of  disease, 
typhoid  fever  has  a  definite  duration  in  time  and 
then  ends.  Of  course  this  explains  nothing.  The 
statement  that  the  phenomena  of  disease  are  uniform 
in  character,  by  natural  law,  gives  no  idea  of  the 
underlying  force  which  determines  the  uniformity 
of  the  law. 

But  Koch's  discovery,  with  the  aid  of  Charles 
Darwin's  great  doctrine  in  biology,  natural  selection, 


36          THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

permits  to  be  given  complete  scientific  explanations 
of  the  cause  of  disease,  its  course,  duration,  and  the 
cause  of  the  termination.  These  things  rank  medi- 
cine among  the  exact  sciences. 

The  suggestion  that  disease  terminates  spon- 
taneously and  without  reference  to  medical  treat- 
m'ent  was  opposed  in  the  most  violent  manner  by  the 
medical  profession.  They  asked  the  pertinent  ques- 
tion, "  If  disease  ends  spontaneously,  then  where 
is  the  benefit  of  treatment  or  cure  ?  "  Before  this 
time  physicians  were  supposed  to  cure  disease. 
After  this  great  confession  physicians  claimed  to 
treat  disease,  but  not  to  cure  it.  How  could  they 
cure  it  ?  They  could  not  remove  the  cause,  for 
they  knew  not  the  cause.  They  could  not  be 
credited  with  causing  termination  of  the  disease  by 
a  cure,  for  the  disease  would  end  whether  treated 
or  not,  or  whether  cured  or  not.  It  is  true  that  the 
verification  of  the  germ  origin  of  disease  has  thrown 
very  little  light  on  the  subject  of  curing  disease. 
The  microbe  evaded"  discovery  until  the  mid-day  of 
science  and  seems  able  yet  to  evade  its  enemies. 
But  its  discovery  has  made  the  prevention  of  disease 
a  certainty.  The  microbe  can  be  prevented  from 
transportation,  and  from  germination  in  soil,  air, 
water,  and  organic  matter.  The  general  public, 
however,  are  not  yet  ready  to  do  this  work.  They 
do  not  appreciate  its  importance  or  their  privileges. 
No  doubt  the  time  will  come  when  the  preventable 
diseases  will  be  prevented  and  the  necessity  of  cure 
will  be  superseded 


PROGRESS  OF   MEDICAL   SCIENCE.  37 

In  reading  medical  history  we  find  that  the 
formula  for  treating  all  new  things  is  expressed  by 
the  familiar  epigram,  "  First  endure,  then  pity, 
then  embrace."  It  may  safely  be  said  that  nothing 
was  ever  discovered  relating  to  the  cause  of  disease, 
its  treatment,  or  its  pathology  that  was  not  subjected 
to  this  formula.  The  discovery  of  the  anaesthetic 
properties  of  ether  and  chloroform  and  the  anaes- 
thesia of  patients  was  opposed  by  the  profession. 
Ovariotomy  was  denounced  as  a  method  of  man- 
slaughter by  the  medical  press  of  Germany,  not 
longer  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  ;  to-day  the 
least  valiant  of  surgeons  will  undertake  a  laparotomy 
with  general  approval.  The  use  of  electricity  as  a 
means  of  treatment  was  ridiculed  and  denounced. 
The  treatment  of  disease  by  hydrotherapy  was  de- 
nounced as  quackery  by  the  profession.  Now  no 
physician  considers  himself  equipped  for  the  treat- 
ment of  disease  without  the  possession  of  expensive 
electro-medical  apparatus.  The  medical 'profession 
has  a  few  choice  expletives  which  are  held  in  posi- 
tion and  thrown  like  javelins  at  all  new  appearances 
on  the  medical  horizon.  The  members  first  throw 
the  weapon  and  an  investigation  is  made  afterward. 
Following  this  generally  comes  the  "  embrace,"  or 
the  acceptance  of  the  verified  discoveries. 

The  two  great  principles  learned  as  a  result  of 
the  verification  of  the  cause  of  disease  are,  first, 
that  diseases  of  like  character  do  not  have  a  variety 
of  unlike  causes  ;  and,  second,  the  cure  of  any  dis- 
ease is  not  accomplished  by  a  variety  of  general 


3$          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

and  unlike  remedies.  A  remedy  which  can  reach 
and  entirely  destroy  the  microbe  of  disease  will 
cure  a  disease.  When  such  discovery  is  made  it  is 
found  that  a  single  remedy  is  a  cure.  There  is  no 
longer  a  call  for  a  great  number  and  various  kinds 
of  remedies.  The  cause  of  each  special  disease  is 
always  a  specific  cause.  The  cure  is  a  specific 
cure — a  single  remedy ;  or  else  there  is  no  cure,  the 
disease  being  simply  treated  by  a  variety  of  general 
remedies,  which  may  or  may  not  antagonize  some 
of  the  general  symptoms  of  the  disease,  and  may  do 
good  or  injury.  The  latest  results  of  medical  in- 
vestigations have  demonstrated  single  and  positive 
cures  for  tetanus  and  pneumonia,  and  have  indicated 
the  general  principle  upon  which  positive  cures  will 
be  founded. 


CHAPTER  III. 
OXYGEN,  OZONE,  AND   liACTERIA. 

NO    dead    organic    matter    is    oxidized    without 
putrefaction.      Dead  plants  and  animals,  with 
the    dead    waste  of   plants   and   animals,    would  lie 
where  they  fell  forever  were  there  no  agents  for  their 
decomposition  but  ozone  and  oxygen. 

These  substances  are  first  consumed  by  bacteria  ; 
dead  bodies  in  graves,  dead  plants  on  the  ground, 
dead  sewage  and  leaves,  as  well  as  all  waste  of  living 
things  are  consumed  by  bacteria.  Oxygen  is  neces- 
sary to  complete  this  process,  just  as  oxygen  is 
necessary  to  maintain  life  ;  but  oxygen  does  not  do 
the  work.  Bacteria  form  from  dead  matter  the 
fetid  gases,  the  sulphites,  nitrites,  phosphites,  acids, 
gases,  water,  etc.,  as  well  as  ammonia  and  such  com- 
pounds. 

It  is  not  known  that  oxygen  anywhere  does  this 
work  without  bacteria.  The  latter  are  also  the 
agents  of  fermentation.  All  ferments  are  bacteria, — 
acetic  acid,  vinegar,  alcoholic  ferment,  and  all  oth- 
ers. This  process  of  fermentation  was  supposed  to 
be  all  done  by  oxygen,  until  the  demonstration  of 
an  English  physician  eighteen  years  ago.  The 
work  of  bacteria,  on  dead  and  living  matter,  results 

39 


40         THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

in  what  we  know  as  disease,  putrefaction,  and  fer- 
mentation. Putrefaction  is  the  result  of  the  action 
of  bacteria  on  dead  matter  which  contains  nitrogen. 
When  bacteria  act  upon  dead  matter  which  does  not 
contain  nitrogen  the  result  is  fermentation.  When 
bacteria  act  on  living  matter  the  result  is  disease. 

So  far  as  known  all  diseases  are  caused  by  some 
kind  of  poison.  Some  diseases,  as  consumption, 
scarlet  fever,  pneumonia,  typhoid,  etc.,  are  caused 
by  the  poison  of  bacteria.  These  poisons  are  generi- 
cally  called  ptomaines.  The  law  is  that  each  spe- 
cies of  microbe  has  its  specific  ptomaine  and  causes 
its  special  disease.  The  microbe  acts  upon  living 
tissue  cells  by  means  of  its  poison  ;  it  kills  the  cells 
by  poisoning  them  and  uses  the  dead  cells  for  food. 
In  disease  the  microbe  inhabits  the  tissues  which 
offer  the  least  resistance  and  manufactures  its  pto- 
maine, killing  the  cells  of  this  particular  tissue. 
This  produces  the  phenomenon  of  disease.  In  all 
such  cases  of  disease  more  or  less  of  the  ptomaine 
poison  is  taken  up  by  the  circulation  and  poisons 
the  general  system.  This  poison,  so  circulating, 
causes  fever,  by  acting  upon  the  nerve  centres  in 
the  medulla  oblongata.  So  true  is  this  now  known 
to  be,  that  a  rise  of  the  bodily  temperature  is  a  cer- 
tain indication  of  the  presence  of  a  ptomaine  ;  no 
other  poison  causes  rise  of  the  temperature.  Alco- 
hol lowers  the  temperature  ;  so  do  aconite,  atropia, 
arsenic,  etc. 

Of  course  the  products  of  putrefaction  are  oxid- 
ized in  the  air  ;  the  process  of  oxidation  is  then 


OXYGEN,  OZONE,   AND   BACTERIA.  41 

completed.  But  all  dead  matter  is  broken  down 
mechanically  and  chemically  by  these  forms  of  life 
before  oxygen  plays  any  direct  part  in  the  process. 

Moisture  is  necessary  in  all  this  operation,  be- 
cause bacteria  cannot  live  without  water.  Fruit, 
meat,  food,  etc.,  are  preserved  by  canning,  putting 
up  in  antiseptics,  or  drying.  The  canning  of  such 
materials  mechanically  keeps  out  the  bacteria  ;  anti- 
septics destroy  them  ;  drying  the  food  prevents  the 
germination  of  the  spores  of  the  bacteria.  Wheat 
sown  in  a  field  will  never  germinate  if  water  is  not 
present. 

Ozone  is  one  of  the  germ  destroyers — germi- 
toxic,  antiseptic.  It  will  kill  a  germ,  just  as  enough 
of  it  will  destroy  any  living  thing.  Like  all  other 
germitoxics  it  can  be  used  to  a  limited  extent  in 
the  body  as  a  germ  destroyer,  with  more  or  less 
success,  and  yet  not  destroy  life.  The  rule  is  that 
all  poison,  or  any  poison,  which  can  destroy  bacte- 
ria, will  also  destroy  tissue  cells,  although  this  may 
not  go  far  enough  to  take  the  life  of  the  person. 

Nature  cures  disease  by  creating  a  cure  as  a  re- 
sult of  disease. 

Immunity  to  the  action  of  any  disease  poison  is 
the  inevitable  result  of  poisoning,  as  it  is  to  any 
disease, — provided  the  patient  lives.  The  tissue 
cells  acquire  a  tolerance  to  the  poison  through  be- 
ing poisoned.  It  is  this  law  of  poisoning  which 
causes  the  termination  of  diseases  and  the  termina- 
tion of  epidemics.  By  this  law  the  optimist  fore- 
tells a  millennium  of  health  and  the  end  of  disease, 


42         THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

No  other  final  result  can  occur  under  the  present 
laws  of  disease. 

It  is  true  enough  that  oxygen  can  affect  dead 
organic  substances  to  a  limited  extent,  without  the 
preliminary  action  of  bacteria;  but  owing  to  the 
universal  presence  of  bacteria,  oxygen  seldom  or 
never  actually  does  this  work. 

Bacteria  are  the  agents  of  nitrification.  If  they 
did  not  exist,  life  in  this  world  would  soon  end  for 
want  of  nitrogen,  or  nitrogenized  organic  matter. 
Suppose,  by  way  of  illustration,  that  the  nitrogen- 
ized materials,  living  and  dead  on  earth,  weigh  five 
million  pounds  ;  say  half  of  it  is  dead  and  half  alive ; 
the  living  half  is  continually  dying  and  the  dead 
continually  being  made  alive.  The  manner  of  mak- 
ing the  dead  alive  is  by  first  feeding  plants  ;  then 
by  feeding  the  plants  to  animals,  and  the  latter  to 
other  animals.  But  living  things  die  and  living 
things  continually  manufacture  waste  products.  The 
dead  bodies  and  the  waste  of  living  bodies  take  the 
nitrogenous  materials  under  the  ground,  or  into  the 
water.  Oxygen  cannot  reach  dead  bodies,  but  the 
latter  are  reached  by  bacteria.  They  are  consumed 
and  washed  away  by  water,  or  pass  into  the  air,  or 
are  taken  up  by  plants. 

The  waste  of  animals  is  used  as  a  fertilizer  ;  but 
plants  feed  on  such  material  in  its  natural  condition 
with  great  difficulty.  In  fact  plants  do  not  use 
manure  or  sewage  until  they  rot  ;  rotting  simply 
means  the  liberation  or  mechanical  pulling  apart  of 
the  chemical  structure  of  the  waste  products, 


OXYGEN,  OZONE,  AND  BACTERIA.  43 

The  action  of  bacteria  puts  the  material  into 
chemical  relation  with  oxygen.  Nitrites,  nitrates, 
phosphites,  phosphates,  etc.,  are  created,  and  these 
materials  are  first  taken  up  by  plants  and  then  by 
animals. 

Now  suppose  bacteria  were  out  of  the  problem. 
Dead  bodies  would  lie  where  they  fell,  forever. 
Dead  trees  would  lie  prostrate,  while  bodies  in 
graves  that  were  dry  would  preserve  every  feature 
until  the  resurrection.  Dead  waste  would  cumber 
the  ground  and  streams,  but  would  be  waste  forever. 
None  of  this  nitrogenous  material  could  be  again 
taken  up.  In  a  longer  or  shorter  time  life  would 
close  for  want  of  food  ;  all  organic  matter  would  be 
dead  and  buried,  with  the  nitrogen  under  lock  and 
key. 

Bacteria  ferment,  putrefy,  and  cause  disease. 
They  ferment  organic  matter  which  does  not  contain 
nitrogen,  putrefy  that  which  does,  and  cause  disease 
in  living  matter. 

In  this  day  "the  least  has  become  the  greatest." 
Our  destinies  and  fate  were  long  bound  up  in  a  wise 
Providence  ;  but  it  seems  that  the  work  designed 
by  Providence  is  carried  out  by  bacteria. 

Ozone  is  manufactured,  to  a  limited  extent  only, 
by  the  process  of  putrefaction.  It  is  nature's  dis- 
infectant. It  impedes  the  overdevelopment  or 
overgrowth  of  the  putrefactive  forces,  but  of  course 
it  does  not  prevent  all  putrefaction.  Putrefaction 
is  the  resultant  of  the  forces  of  bacteria,  resisted  by 
ozone.  Ozone,  however,  as  thus  manufactured, 


44         THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

begins  the  process  of  the  oxidation  of  the  putrefac- 
tive products. 

That  bacteria  cause  disease  by  making  a  poison 
generically  called  ptomaine  appears  to  be  verified. 
The  law  also  is  that  each  species  makes  a  special 
kind  of  poison,  But  an  interesting  question  is  here 
developed.  Why  do  different  germs  attack  different 
parts  of  the  body  ?  Bacillus  tuberculosis,  for  in- 
stance, attacks  the  glands — the  lungs,  as  a  rule. 
Why  should  cholera  bacillus  assail  the  intestines  ? 
Why  typhoid  bacillus  the  glands  of  Peyer  in  the 
intestines  ?  Why  other  germs,  as  small-pox,  the 
skin  ? 

The  question  is  explained  by  Darwin's  law  of 
natural  selection,  The  animal  kingdom  has  been 
fighting  the  ptomaine  poisons  always.  Little  by 
little,  one  at  a  time,  the  cells,  tissues,  and  organs 
have  become  exempt  from  the  action  of  these  pois- 
ons. If  there  were  no  such  exemption,  thus  acquired 
by  heredity,  any  given  ptomaine  of  any  germ  would 
affect  equally  all  parts  of  the  body.  Scarlet  fever 
poison  would  do  so,  typhoid  would  do  so,  as  also 
consumption,  diphtheria,  etc.  In  such  a  case  we 
should  have  no  definite  diseases  ;  all  would  be  alike. 
As  it  now  is,  the  problem  of  disease  is  a  resultant  of 
the  acquired  resistance  which  any  tissue  may  have, 
as  one  force,  and  the  chemical  force  of  a  ptomaine 
on  the  other  side.  Tissues  or  cells  acquire  a  toler- 
ance to  a  poison  by  being  poisoned.  It  is  my  belief 
that  no  cure  will  ever  be  found  for  the  ptomaine 
diseases  ;  though  there  will  be  for  all  other  poisons, 


OXYGEN,  OZONE,  AND   BACTERIA.  45 

All  cure  for  these  diseases  is  prevention — to  use  an 
"  Irishism."  When  cells  have  acquired  a  tolerance 
to  a  ptomaine  they  hold  it  for  some  time.  It  is  this 
fact  which  makes  the  prevention  of  disease  possible. 
Now  disease  of  any  special  kind  can  only  be  pre- 
vented by  the  poison  which  causes  the  disease.  If 
this  poison  can  be  tempered,  so  as  to  be  used  safely, 
a  tolerance  is  acquired,  which  tolerance  exceeds  the 
power  of  the  microbe  with  its  ptomaine.  This  is 
the  philosophy  of  all  inoculation  for  the  prevention 
of  diseases. 

Killing  the  microbe  is  the  next  method.  This 
is  an  extremely  difficult  thing  to  do,  because  poisons 
are  not  specific  enough.  The  law  of  natural  selec- 
tion holds  as  good  with  bacteria  as  with  people. 
Bacteria  can  acquire  a  tolerance  to  poison.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  surgical  microbe  will  in  time 
acquire  a  great  tolerance  to  carbolic  acid,  corrosive 
sublimate,  and  such  antiseptics.  If  the  bacillus 
tuberculosis  is  poisoned  for  a  few  years  with  ozone, 
the  germ  will  acquire  a  tolerance  to  this  drug. 
This  world  is  based  on  a  war  footing,  and  all  living 
things  have  equal  privileges  and  powers  under  the 
great  law  of  natural  selection.  But  man  is  the 
product  of  this  warfare.  So  are  the  bacteria.  They 
are  now  fighting  each  other  with  the  same  general 
weapon  —  poison. 

The  law  of  natural  selection  explains  how  dis- 
eases come  to  an  end.  The  plague  and  black  death 
were  once  the  chief  epidemics  ;  they  ceased  because 
the  people  of  Europe  acquired  a  tolerance  to  the 


46         THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

poison.  These  epidemics  no  longer  prevail.  Chol- 
era is  no  longer  so  virulent  and  yellow  fever  is 
no  longer  so  uniformly  fatal.  La  grippe  will  wear 
out  the  same  way.  Syphilis  is  now  very  mild  and 
no  longer  takes  off  the  skin  or  destroys  the  bones 
of  its  victims. 

Sanitation  has  its  effects  on  all  diseases.  Proper 
sanitation  could  entirely  banish  them.  It  is  no 
doubt  intended  by  Final  Design  that  all  such  dis- 
eases shall  be  destroyed — not  by  cures,  but  by  pre- 
vention. "An  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound 
of  cure." 

Our  antiseptics  do  injury  to  germs  no  doubt, 
when  applied  directly,  but  really,  the  philosophy 
of  cure,  as  I  have  said,  is  prevention,  by  using 
ptomaines. 

There  are  several  hundred  poisons  which  destroy 
bacteria.  If  it  should  be  developed  that  each  spe- 
cies has  a  specific  poison  which  it  can  not  resist 
at  all,  and  this  poison  is  one  which  the  human 
being  can  resist,  then  the  solution  would  be  easy ; 
but  experience  has  not  yet  developed  any  such  fact. 
Besides,  if  it  had,  we  cannot  avoid  the  law  of  selec- 
tion ;  we  must  infer  that  if  it  were  true,  the  germ 
would  soon  acquire  a  tolerance  to  the  poison. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
IMMUNITY  FROM  POISONS  AND  DISEASES. 

r  I  ^HERE  is  no  subject  of  popular  knowledge  more 
-L  easily  or  generally  understood  than  is  the  fact 
that  one  attack  of  certain  diseases  gives  a  person 
immunity  from  further  attacks  of  the  same  disease 
for  a  greater  or  less  period  of  time. 

.The  law  is  that  one  attack  of  a  disease  has  this 
effect  as  one  of  its  results.  It  is  said  that  the  uni- 
verse is  governed  by  law,  but  this  is  scarcely  true. 
It  is,  rather,  that  the  universe  is  governed  by  force, 
or  energy ;  law  is  simply  an  indication  of  the  uni- 
formity of  the  action  of  this  energy  in  all  its  trans- 
formations and  conservations.  It  is  a  law  that 
ripened  fruit  falls  to  the  ground  ;  it  is  a  law  that 
avalanches  slide  down  the  sides  of  mountains,  and 
a  law  that  rivers  flow  toward  an  outlet  of  less  alti- 
tude than  their  origin ;  but  the  forces  which  underlie 
these  phenomena  must  be  known  in  order  to  under- 
stand them. 

When  men  explain  things  and  phenomena  they 
do  so  by  citing  a  more  general  force,  law,  or  phe- 
nomenon, under  which  the  special  thing  in  question 
can  be  classed.  There  is  no  other  explanation  pos- 
sible, because  the  human  mind  cannot  comprehend 
absolute  things  ;  it  understands  only  the  relations 

47 


48          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

between  things.  We  say  anything  is  explained  if 
we  know  its  causal  relations  to  a  general  force 
which  brings  about  this  special  phenomenon  or 
thing,  and  a  class  of  things  and  phenomena  which 
are  like  it. 

When  men  observe  a  uniform  appearance  of  cer- 
tain phenomena  and  do  not  know,  or  think  they  do 
not  know,  the  underlying  forces,  they  have  no  fur- 
ther explanaticn  to  offer  than  that  such  is  the  law. 

At  the  present  time,  in  the  mind  of  many,  there 
is  no  explanation  of  the  observed  fact  that  one 
attack  of  disease  prevents  further  attacks,  for  a  time, 
of  the  same  disease,  other  than  that  such  is  one  of 
the  laws  of  disease. 

Pathologists  are  now  working  out  this  problem. 
They  know  what  causes  disease.  They  are  testing 
the  microbe  in  its  relations  to  poison,  to  disease, 
and  to  its  natural  history,  in  order  to  discover  some 
general  law  which  will  explain  certain  uniform  phe- 
nomena or  laws  of  poisoning  and  of  disease. 

It  is  due  to  given  workers  in  this  field  to  say  that 
they  have  made  some  suggestions  in  this  direction 
which  fall  short  of  an  explanation.  Certain  tissue 
cells,  phagocytes,  have  been  credited  with  a  scav- 
enger action  in  resisting  the  microbe.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  animal  tissues  contain  an  element 
which  when  consumed  as  food  by  the  microbe,  its 
germ  dies  from  starvation.  Some  gentlemen  have 
suggested  that  oxygen  is  the  agent  which,  by  its 
presence  or  absence  in  the  body,  determines  the 
duration  of  disease  and  its  sequent  immunity.  None 


IMMUNITY  FROM  POISONS  AND  DISEASES.     49 

of  these  suggestions  fill  the  demand  for  an  explana- 
tion. They  are  not  known  to  really  have  an  exist- 
ence ;  but  the  latter  is  hypothecated,  in  the  hope 
that  it  may  explain  certain  laws  that  may  prove 
their  existence. 

There  are  many  leading  laws  of  disease  and  pois- 
oning which  must  be  explained  by  one  general  law. 
We  cannot  have  or  invent  a  general  law  for  every 
special  fact  in  disease,  or  other  phenomena  in  other 
sciences.  There  is  no  need,  because  a  new  fact  is 
discovered,  of  searching  for  new  general  biological 
laws  by  which  to  explain  it  until  a  test  is  made  of 
those  already  known. 

The  leading  laws,  or  results  of  laws,  of  disease 
and  of  poisoning  which  present  themselves  to  all 
observers  for  explanation  are,  perhaps,  as  follows  : 

(1)  The  heredity  of  disease  and   hereditary  im- 
munity from  disease. 

(2)  The    duration   of   disease   and   cause   of  its 
termination. 

(3)  The   differentiated     character   of    diseases  ; 
definite  signs,  symptoms,  anatomical  changes,  loca- 
tion, and  duration  of  diseases. 

(4)  The  immunity  from  disease  acquired  by  once 
having  a  disease,  or  from  inoculation,  and   the  loss 
of  this  immunity  by  atavism. 

(5)  Poisons  :    (a)   The  results  of  poisoning;  (b) 
death;  (c)  variation  in  type  of  the  cells  with  sequent 
increased  tolerance  to  the  poison,  and  the  demand 
of  the  poisoned  tissues  for   more   poison  ;    (d)   the 
meaning    of    increased    tolerance    to    poison ;    (e) 


5°         THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

hereditary  relations  ;  (f)  immunity  from  poisons, 
its  extent  and  loss  by  atavism. 

Disease  has  long  enjoyed  the  credit  of  being 
hereditary.  A  perverted  interpretation  of  the  Scrip- 
ture text  has  been  applied  to  disease,  which  refers 
to  the  sins  of  parents.  To  a  very  limited  extent 
the  germ  of  disease  may  be  claimed  to  be  transmit- 
ted by  heredity.  It  is  possible  that  it  may  be  handed 
down  directly  from  the  mother  to  the  unborn  child. 
The  verification  is  not  yet  determined  that  the  direct 
transmission  from  the  father  to  the  offspring  occurs, 
although  this  may  be  among  the  possibilities.  But 
in  this  heredity  the  cause  and  not  the  disease  itself 
is  inherited.  Poisons  of  any  kind  taken  by  the 
mother  may  poison  her  offspring  in  this  manner. 
A  child  may  be  born  an  inebriate  if  the  mother 
habitually  uses  alcohol  during  gestation. 

But  disease  itself  is  not  transmitted  by  heredity. 
By  this  is  here  meant  the  pathological  resultants  of 
the  cause  of  disease,  ptomaines,  resisted  by  the 
physiological  forces.  These  resultants  are,  in  a 
general  sense,  inflammation,  pathological  new  forma- 
tions, and  degenerations. 

Tubercles,  cancer,  and  the  deformities  resulting 
from  injuries  are  not  transmitted  by  heredity. 
Amputations  and  scars  are  not  transmitted,  neither 
are  fractured  bones,  nor  other  deformities  caused 
by  injury.  Other  poisons  than  ptomaines  cause 
anatomical  changes  which  are  not  transmitted. 
Alcohol  causes  a  pathological  variation  of  tissue 
cells — a  wound,  or  traumatism,  known  as  inebriety, 


IMMUNITY  FROM  POISONS  AND  DISEASES.     51 

which  is   not  transmitted.     Inebriety  is  not  heredi- 
tary. 

The  limited  duration  of  disease  is  one  of  its 
definite  characters.  All  people  now  know  this  fact. 
Diseases  do  not  terminate  "  spontaneously,"  but  all 
of  them  have  definite  laws  relating  to  their  duration 
and  termination  ;  this  definite  duration,  if  the  dis- 
ease have  no  "  complications,"  is  modified  very  lit- 
tle by  treatment,  if  it  is  a  mycotic  or  a  germ  disease. 
Disease  terminates  by  natural  laws,  and  the  reason 
it  ends  is  simply  because  the  system  acquires  a  tol- 
erance to  the  poison  of  the  disease.  It  is  the  same 
reason,  also,  which  causes  the  future  immunity  of 
the  person  to  further  attacks  of  the  same  disease. 

Diseases  are  not  all  alike,  nor  are  they  differ- 
entiated relating  to  signs,  symptoms,  and  anatomy. 
Small-pox,  scarlet  fever,  measles,  and  their  like 
attack  the  skin,  each  causing  a  characteristic  erup- 
tion. Inflammations  of  different  character  have 
different  locations.  Thus  there  is  an  inflammation 
of  varying  type,  for  each  bodily  organ,  which  is 
limited  to  each  respectively.  The  germ  appears  to 
be  unable  to  attack  but  one  organ,  while  all  other 
organs  seem  able  to  resist  it.  This  law  holds  good 
with  every  disease  relating  to  location.  Disease 
appears  to  be  definite  as  to  place,  because  all  organs 
except  the  diseased  one  have  acquired  an  immunity 
from  the  given  malady,  or  an  inherited  tolerance  to 
the  poison  of  the  disease.  A  study  of  disease  will 
show  that  one  of  its  results  is  the  physiological 
variation  of  the  tissue  cells  which  enables  them  to 


52          THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

resist  or  tolerate  given  poisons.  This  acquire- 
ment is  brought  about  by  use,  or  physiological 
activity.  This  variation  becomes  an  anatomical 
feature  of  the  tissue  cell.  It  is  not  pathological 
anatomy,  but  physiological  anatomy  ;  that  is,  it  is 
not  a  resultant  of  pathology  but  of  physiology.  It 
is  a  development  and  not  a  result  of  traumatism  or 
an  injury.  It  is  an  acquirement  of  physiological 
activities.  It  rs  a  property  of  the  tissues.  It  is 
immunity,  tolerance,  resistance.  It  is  not  like  an 
amputation,  but,  rather,  like  the  large  muscle  of 
the  blacksmith. 

Tooth,  beak,  claw,  speed,  strategy,  and  fighting 
ability  are  all  the  resultants  of  conflicts  of  the  ani- 
mal kingdom  with  enemies  and  conditions  in  the 
struggle  for  life.  During  their  development,  from 
use  of  the  physiological  activities  of  the  struggle, 
many  teeth  were  lost,  claws  broken,  beaks  fractured, 
and  animals  killed  by  fighting,  or  over-exertion  in 
trying  to  outrun  their  enemies  ;  yet  none  of  these 
results  were  transmitted  by  heredity. 

Nature  carefully  forgets  the  pathological  result- 
ants, the  amputations,  tubercles,  lost  teeth,  and 
broken  bones,  but  as  carefully  preserves  all  that  is 
possible  of  the  acquired  resistance  to  the  cause  of 
these  things,  transmitting  all  that  may  be  of  this 
acquired  resistance.  The  law  is  that  nature  does 
not  hand  down  disease,  but  transmits  by  heredity 
the  acquired  resisflwice  to  disease,  or  an  immunity 
to  disease.  It  is  this  transmitted  immunity  which, 
in  every  disease,  preserves  many  bodily  organs 


IMMUNITY  FROM  POISONS  AND  DISEASES.     53 

while  others  are  diseased,  and  thus  give  disease  its 
definite  characters. 

Immunity  from  disease  means  that  nature,  in  any 
given  case  of  illness,  or  germ  poisoning,  creates  a 
tolerance  to  the  action  of  the  poison  of  the  germ 
in  the  tissue  cells  of  the  organs  diseased.  This 
tolerance  terminates  the  disease,  and  gives  protec- 
tion for  a  time,  or  until  a  sufficient  degree  of  the 
variation  underlying  the  tolerance  is  lost.  The 
greater  part  is  usually  lost  by  atavistic  variation  of 
the  cells  ;  but  some  of  it  is  retained  and  some  of  it 
is  transmitted  by  heredity. 

Inoculation,  in  general  terms,  does  not  differ 
from  the  action  of  the  disease.  The  special  differ- 
ence between  inoculation  and  an  attack  of  disease, 
in  the  usual  manner  of  contagion  or  infection,  is  that 
the  former  brings  about  the  disease  in  a  milder 
form  by  a  less  virulent  type  of  the  same  microbe. 
The  virus  used  in  inoculation  is  composed  of  bac- 
teria which  have  undergone,  through  the  depriva- 
tions of  "culture,"  such  hardships  that  they  are  not 
able  to  produce  a  severe  type  of  disease.  An  inoc- 
ulated disease  resembles  the  original  disease  in  gen- 
eral character,  but  is  of  less  duration,  and  there  is 
much  less  virulence,  less  pathology,  and  less  poi- 
soning. The  design  of  inoculation,  or  vaccination, 
is  to  exchange  the  severe  type  of  a  disease  for  a 
mild  type  of  the  same  disease,  for  the  sake  of  the 
immunity  which  follows.  Inoculation  protects  peo- 
ple and  animals  from  disease.  It  is  not  positively 
safe,  but  the  death  rate  is  much  less  than  when  it  is 


54          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

not  practiced,  in  any  given  disease  which  can  be 
prevented  in  this  way. 

The  reason  that  one  attack  of  disease  or  inocula- 
tion will  prevent  disease  is  due  to  the  increased  tol- 
erance of  the  tissues  or  cell  structure  to  the  ptomaine 
or  poison  of  the  disease. 

But  as  is  well  known  this  protection  or  tolerance 
does  not  last  long.  It  always  fades  away.  This  is 
the  result  of  atavistic  variation.  When  the  cells  are 
placed  in  a  position  where  poison  is  a  factor  of 
their  environment  they  must  either  be  destroyed  or 
undergo  a  variation  enabling  them  to  tolerate  the 
poison.  Then  the  poison  is  withdrawn,  the  cells 
are  in  a  new  environment ;  and,  as  this  is  like  that 
which  existed  before  the  poison  was  present,  the 
cells  go  back  to  their  original  corresponding  type, 
or  the  type  of  their  ancestors,  which  is  atavism. 

Inoculation  will  have  a  notable  future.  In  fact 
it  will  be  by  this  method  that  all  germ  diseases  will 
be  cured  and  prevented.  The  ptomaines  of  the 
germs  of  these  diseases  will  be  isolated  and  used  as 
medicines.  The  use  of  these  poisons  will  create  a 
tolerance  to  the  germ  of  the  disease.  The  dose  can 
be  so  graduated  that  there  will  be  no  danger. 
There  is  proof  already  that  this  can  be  done  suc- 
cessfully. 

The  vegetable  and  animal  poisons  are  similar  in 
a  general  way  to  the  action  of  the  germ  poisons. 
They  do  not  produce  as  definite  diseases,  because 
they  are  not  manufactured  in  the  body  by  germs, 
but  are  taken  accidentally,  when  they  cause  certain 


IMMUNITY  FROM  POISONS  AND  DISEASES.     55 

definite  symptoms  of  poisoning.  Or  they  are  taken 
habitually,  when  they  are  subject  to  the  same  phe- 
nomena, relating  to  the  creation  of  tolerance  and 
immunity,  that  control  the  action  of  germ  poisons. 
Taken  in  sufficient  quantity  poisons  cause  imme- 
diate death  by  inhibiting  the  action  of  organs  which 
can  resist  them  the  least.  The  narcotic  poisons,  as 
opium,  belladonna,  etc.,  paralyze  certain  nerve  cen- 
tres. The  science  of  toxicology  is  a  very  interesting 
study  and  underlies  therapeutic  science.  Diseases 
are  treated  by  poisons  in  small  doses,  or  in  doses 
which  are  too  small  to  cause  a  fatal  effect.  The 
most  interesting  feature  of  poisoning  is  the  physio- 
logical antagonism  of  certain  poisons  to  each  other. 
This  effect  of  poisons  depends  upon  the  physiolog- 
ical fact  that  all  functions  of  the  organs  of  the  body 
are  the  resultants  of  opposing  forces.  There  is  no 
physiological  result  that  is  not  created  in  this  man- 
ner. Every  organ  and  special  function  has  its  nerve 
centres  of  motion  and  inhibition,  and  the  function 
of  each  organ  is  the  product  of  its  nerve  motor 
force,  resisted  by  its  nerve  centre  inhibitory  force. 
The  pulse  rate,  the  secretion  of  gastric  juice,  each 
excretion  or  secretion  of  the  body,  the  blood  pres- 
sure, and  even  the  exercise  of  the  mental  functions 
are  all  the  resultants  of  direct  motor  energy,  resisted 
by  inhibitory  energy. 

The  antagonism  of  poison,  physiologically,  is 
due  to  the  complex  action  of  different  poisons  upon 
the  motor  and  inhibitory  energies.  One  drug  may 
stimulate  motor  energy,  another  paralyze  motor 


56          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

energy  directly.  The  poison  which  stimulates  the 
motor  energy  of  any  special  organ  directly  in- 
creases its  special  function ;  a  drug  which  paralyzes 
its  motor  energy  lessens  its  function  directly.  These 
two  drugs  are  antagonistic. 

A  drug  which  stimulates  the  inhibitory  energy  of 
an  organ  indirectly  decreases  the  function  of  any 
special  organ  ;  a  drug  which  paralyzes  the  inhib- 
itory energy  of  an  organ  increases  the  function  of 
any  special  organ  indirectly.  These  two  drugs  are 
antagonistic  physiologically.  The  reason  different 
drugs  thus  act  upon  different  centres,  organs,  and 
functions  is  not  because  they  have  any  affinity  for 
certain  tissues  respectively  ;  it  is  because  different 
drugs  meet  with  unequal  resistance.  The  law  gov- 
erning poisoning  is  similar  to  the  law  governing  the 
direction  of  all  force  ;  which  is  that  all  force  or  any 
force  takes  the  direction  of  least  resistance. 

In  any  kind  of  poisoning  that  can  become  hab- 
itual two  interesting  factors  are  noticed,  which  are 
recognized  laws  of  poisoning  and  which  require 
explanation.  One  of  them  is  the  increased  toler- 
ance of  the  tissues  that  are  poisoned  to  the  drug; 
the  other,  a  demand  of  the  poisoned  tissues  for  more 
of  the  drug. 

This  fact  is  observed  and  demonstrated  in  the 
habitues  of  opium,  alcohol,  arsenic,  hasheesh,  ether, 
chloral,  and  other  drugs.  The  general  force  which 
underlies  all  the  phenomena  of  poisoning  must  ex- 
plain these  two  notable  factors. 

In  poisoning  an  increased  tolerance  may  not  be 


IMMUNITY  FROM  POISONS  AND  DISEASES.     57 

sufficient  to  prevent  the  taking  of  a  fatal  dose  ;  to 
this  extent  the  immunity  from  poisons  differs  from 
that  of  disease.  In  disease  the  dose  of  poison  is 
limited  to  the  resistant  powers  of  the  microbe  ;  but, 
for  example,  in  alcoholism  the  dose  is  limited  only 
by  the  purchasing  power  of  the  inebriate  and  his 
ability  to  swallow  poison.  In  disease  the  created 
immunity  is  sufficient  to  prevent  the  disease  ;  but  in 
opium  or  other  poisoning  the  tolerance,  though  it 
may  be  increased  a  hundred  fold,  results  only  in 
requiring  a  corresponding  increase  of  the  dose  to 
cause  the  same  effect. 

The  hereditary  effects  of  mineral  and  narcotic 
poisons  are  similar  to  those  of  disease.  If  a  child 
swallows  lye  a  cicatrix  is  formed  in  the  esophagus. 
This  cicatrix  is  the  pathological  result  of  the  poi- 
son. But  the  scar  will  not  be  transmitted  by 
heredity,  should  the  poisoned  individual  become  the 
parent  of  children.  The  pathological  resultant  is 
never  transmitted ;  but  in  order  to  resist  it  a  physi- 
ological change  in  the  anatomy  of  the  esophagus 
may  result,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  more  or  less 
of  this  acquirement  may  not  be  transmitted. 

In  alcohol  poisoning  the  variation  of  the  type  of 
cells  causing  inebriety  is  likewise  a  wound  or  trau- 
matism,  which  cannot  be  transmitted.  Drunkenness 
is  not  hereditary;  but  the  tolerance  to  alcohol  is  a 
subject  of  hereditary  forces.  The  resistance  of  the 
tissues  to  the  action  of  the  poison  is  transmitted 
more  or  less. 

Nearly  all  drug's  used  as  medicines   are   poisons. 


5§         THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

In  the  use  of  these  drugs  the  laws  of  increased 
tolerance  and  demand  for  the  drug  are  always 
observed.  To  meet  this  indication  physicians 
administer  their  doses  in  increasing  quantities, 
that  they  may  maintain  the  needed  physiological 
effects. 

This  gives  an  outline  of  the  principal  laws  of 
poisoning  and  of  disease  in  relation  to  poisons.  To 
explain  them  some  general  law,  or  force  rather, 
must  be  discerned  which  explains  them  all.  It  will 
not  answer  to  infer  this  general  force  from  diseases 
alone,  or  from  microbe  reactions  alone,  or  from  any 
class  of  poisons  alone.  As  disease  is  a  type  of  pois- 
oning the  same  general  law  of  force  which  explains 
the  definite  character  of  small-pox,  its  duration  and 
sequent  immunity,  must  also  explain  the  poisoning 
of  alcohol,  the  sequent  inebriety,  the  periodical 
drunkenness,  the  term  of  sobriety,  the  tolerance  to 
alcohol,  and  the  demand  of  the  tissues  for  the  poison 
or  the  inebriate's  craving  for  liquor.  The  same  law 
must  explain  immunity  from  disease  and  the  sequent 
loss  of  that  immunity  as  well. 

The  meaning  of  natural  selection  is  that  through 
certain  biological  forces  nature  selects  the  fittest  to 
survive.  The  fittest  are  not  necessarily  those  who 
are  the  most  excellent  persons  in  the  wrorld  from 
any  dogmatic  standpoint,  or  our  estimate  of  human- 
ity physically,  mentally,  or  morally.  But  they  are 
those  who  have  those  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
powers  of  variation,  adjustment,  and  adaptation 
which  enable  them  to  meet  all  conditions  of  environ- 


IMMUNITY  FROM  POISONS  AND  DISEASES.     59 

ment  and  to  maintain  the  adjustment  or  correspon- 
dence between  their  inner  relations  of  mind  and 
body  to  outer  relations  existing  between  things  and 
phenomena. 

Those  who  succeed  in  earning  or  getting  a  living, 
in  escaping  their  enemies,  in  conquering  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  environment  relating  to  climate,  station, 
diseases,  etc.  are  they  who  are  the  fittest  to  live,  so 
far  as  these  relations  extend.  These  laws,  of  course, 
include  all  vegetable  and  animal  life. 

There  is  no  known  organism  having  life,  which 
is  not,  so  far  as  known,  subject  to  the  laws  of  natu- 
ral selection.  So  far  as  known  every  living  organ- 
ism from  the  cells  of  protoplasm  to  man  himself 
are  alike  subject  to  these  laws.  The  factors  of 
natural  selection  are  general  biological  laws.  They 
relate  to  all  life — to  all  phenomena  of  nutrition, 
reproduction,  and  special  and  general  functions. 
The  cells  of  the  tissues  arc  independent,  or  distinct 
creations,  or  individuals.  Animal  and  man  are  sim- 
ply aggregations  of  differentiated  cells.  The  indi- 
vidual cell  of  any  tissue,  if  other  things  are  equal, 
undergoes  the  same  actions  and  reactions  as  does 
the  whole  man,  when  subject  to  poison,  or  food,  or 
enemies.  These  actions  relate  in  every  instance  to 
the  functions  of  each  and  to  the  integrity  of  struc- 
ture and  the  maintenance  of  life  and  death.  The 
cells  and  men  lose  their  lives  from  the  same  causes. 
They  have  the  same  resources  for  variation  of  type, 
adaptation  to  changes  in  the  environment,  and  when 
disturbed  by  untoward  force  they  react  alike  along 


60         THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

the  lines  of  special  and  general  functions — nutrition, 
reproduction,  and  variation  of  type. 

If  two  men  are  equally  exposed  to  a  given  dis- 
ease and  one  escapes,  it  is  due  to  the  fact  that  he  has 
an  immunity  relating  to  this  disease,  acquired  either 
directly  or  by  heredity.  If  two  tissue  cells  of  the 
body  are  equally  exposed  to  a  poison  and  one 
escapes  the  result,  it  is  due  to  the  same  reason. 
When  a  man  is  attacked  by  a  disease  and  some  of 
his  organs  escape  the  resultant  pathology,  it  is  be- 
cause these  organs  through  variation,  and  heredity 
resulting  from  poisoning,  have  acquired  an  immunity 
to  this  disease.  The  factors  of  natural  selection 
are  variation,  heredity,  and  atavism.  By  variation 
is  meant  the  structural  and  physical  changes  under- 
gone by  any  living  organism  as  a  result  of  changes 
in  its  environment  or  internal  relations.  A  change 
of  climate  always  demands  a  corresponding  variation 
relating  to  the  physiology  of  the  individual.  The 
taking  of  a  non-fatal  dose  of  poison  demands  a  vari- 
ation on  the  part  of  the  cells.  Both  variations  are 
the  result  of  outer  relative  conditions  and  both  re- 
sult in  a  closer  adaptation ;  or,  at  least,  it  is  an  effort 
to  adapt  the  life  of  the  organism  to  changed  condi- 
tions. If  the  resources  for  variation  are  great 
enough  on  the  part  of  a  cell  to  enable  it  under  the 
action  of  poison  to  acquire  the  form,  type,  and 
molecular  physiology  to .  resist  it,  then  the  poison 
can  have  no  effect ;  the  cell  lives  on  and  for  a  time 
enjoys  an  immunity  from  this  particular  poison. 


IMMUNITY  FROM  POISONS  AND  DISEASES.     61 

If  natural  selection  is  a  true  force  of  biology,  it 
follows  that  its  factors  must  explain  the  phenomena 
of  life  as  vividly  and  with  as  satisfactory  scientific 
accuracy  as  gravitation  does  the  phenomena  of 
astronomy.  If  it  fails  to  do  so,  then  it  is  not  a 
verified  or  true  general  biological  force.  It  will  be 
seen  that  it  can  and  does  fully  explain  the  phe- 
nomena of  disease,  poisoning,  and  immunity. 

Under  the  force  of  variation  tissue  cells,  subject 
to  poison,  undergo  a  change  which  enables  them  to 
resist  the  poison.  When  they  have  so  adapted 
themselves  to  this  condition,  or  the  presence  of  a 
poison,  they  are  said  to  have  an  immunity  to  the 
action  of  this  poison. 

In  disease  the  action  of  this  factor  of  natural 
selection  tends  to  preserve  the  adaptation  of  the 
cells,  but  does  not  transmit  the  pathology ;  it  trans- 
mits the  variation  which  resists  the  poison  of  dis- 
ease. The  meaning  of  heredity  in  disease  is  that  a 
non-resistance  is  transmitted  by  heredity,  under  a 
factor  of  heredity  that  like  produces  like.  The 
reason  that  the  children  of  consumptives  and  inebri- 
ates may  have  the  same  disease  is  because  their 
families  have  not  yet  acquired  by  variation  and 
heredity  a  sufficient  resistance  to  the  respective  poi- 
sons of  these  diseases. 

It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  any  man  in 
order  to  save  his  progeny  should  "  catch  "  the  con- 
sumption, or  become  an  inebriate.  This  is  nature's 
method  of  preventing  these  things ;  but  man,  by 


62          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

reason  of  brains,  has  discovered  a  better  means  than 
natural  selection — in  hygiene  or  prevention  of  all 
diseases,  including  inebriety. 

I  have  indicated  the  great  laws  of  disease ;  their 
definite  characters  in  type,  duration,  and  termination. 
It  will  be  seen  that  variation  and  heredity  explain 
these  phenomena.  The  cells  gain  immunity  by  be- 
ing poisoned.  They  acquire  a  resistance  to  the 
poison,  which  is  transmitted  to  the  succeeding  gen- 
erations of  cells,  and,  when  sufficient,  the  cells  can 
overcome  the  disease,  which  therefore  ends. 

The  definiteness  of  disease,  or  the  fact  that  in 
each  disease  certain  organs  are  exempt,  depends 
upon  the  fact  that  variation  and  heredity,  acting 
through  a  long  line  of  ancestry,  have  given  certain 
organs  of  the  body  immunity.  In  other  words,  it  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  all  bodily  organs  have 
equal  resources  of  variation,  relating  to  disease  poi- 
sons. Some  of  them  acquire  immunity  before 
others  ;  but  until  this  immunity  becomes  general 
and  complete  the  definiteness  of  disease  will  be  ap- 
parently the  same.  The  logical  conclusion  of  these 
data  we  find  to  be  true.  When  all  organs  are  ex- 
empt the  disease  must  correspondingly  disappear; 
when  all  organs  of  all  people  are  immune  to  any 
given  disease,  the  disease  must  disappear  altogether. 
This  fact  is  observed  in  the  nearly  complete  sup- 
pression of  the  great  European  epidemics,  the  plague 
and  the  black  death,  as  has  been  said  before. 

The  obverse  proof  of  this  fact  is .  seen  in  the 
pathology  of  la  grippe.  No  organ  seems  to  be 


IMMUNITY  FROM  POISONS  AND  DISEASES.     63 

exempt  from  this  germ.  It  attacks  the  brain,  caus- 
ing acute  inflammation  or  insanity,  as  well  as  the 
lungs,  liver,  heart,  intestines,  kidneys,  and  all  other 
organs.  La  grippe  is  the  most  indefinite  disease  at 
present  known  in  relation  to  pathological  lesions, 
location,  duration,  and  symptoms.  The  only  reason 
is  because  the  disease  is  new.  Nature  has  not  had 
sufficient  time  to  cause,  by  variation  and  heredity, 
an  immunity  relating  to  the  disease  and  various 
organs  of  the  body.  Like  other  diseases  la  grippe 
must  now  have  its  day.  Unless  prevented  by  brains 
engaged  in  sanitary  work  it  will  appear  with  peri- 
odical intervals  of  activity  and  rest,  until  all  organs 
and  people  are  immune  to  the  ptomaine  of  its  germ, 
when  it  will  disappear  altogether.  Such  are  tin- 
law  and  the  method  of  natural  selection  relating  to 
disease. 

I  have  stated  a  law  of  disease  to  be  that  it  may 
be  directly  transmitted  from  the  mother  during 
gestation,  but  this  is  not  heredity.  It  is  not  hered- 
ity if  a  child,  born  or  unborn,  has  a  disease  com- 
municated to  it  by  cither  parent.  This  is  the  direct 
communication  of  disease;  the  heredity  of  natural 
selection  means  the  transmission  of  physiological 
likeness,  subject  to  physiological  and  not  patho- 
logical variations. 

The  variation  of  tissue  cells  under  the  action  of 
poison  cannot  be  denied.  All  living  organs,  cells, 
and  animals  possess  their  power  of  variation  in  rela- 
tion to  environment.  A  change  of  environment  in 
any  particular  necessitates  a  change  in  the  organism 


64          THE    NON-HEREDlTY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

to  meet  new  conditions.  Unless  the  organism  can 
adapt  itself  or  be  adapted  to  this  change  it  cannot 
survive.  Those  which  have  resources  to  meet  the 
demands  of  adaptation  are  they  whom  nature  selects 
to  survive. 

The  adaptation  of  new  conditions  is  an  effort  of 
physiology.  In  disease  the  pathology  indicates  a 
failure  to  survive,  of  certain  tissues  and  cells.  They 
are  conquered;  they  no  longer  multiply  their  kind. 
A  hybrid  cell  is  created,  the  resultant  of  physio- 
logical forces  resisting  the  poison  of  disease.  So 
far  as  nature  and  physiology  are  concerned  these 
hybrid  pathological  cells  are  not  recognized.  They 
are  no  more  a  part  of  life  and  of  heredity  than  a 
graveyard  is  a  part  of  the  business  of  a  civilized 
community.  To  be  sure  these  hybrid  tissues  draw 
nutriment  from  the  blood  current  as  parasites  ;  a 
graveyard  is  sustained  financially  by  the  business  of 
a  community  ;  but  neither  nature  nor  men  recognize 
either  of  these  pathological  results  as  factors  of  the 
business  institutions  of  the  living  animal  or  com- 
munity. 

I  am  aware  that  one  of  the  old  verified  doc- 
trines of  heredity  was  that  the  pathological  cells 
send  representatives  of  "physiological  units"  to 
the  germ  cells  concerned  in  reproduction.  This 
cannot  be  true.  These  cells  are  parasites.  They 
can  no  more  enter  the  physiological  currents  of 
heredity  than  other  parasites.  An  itch  insect  occu- 
pies the  human  animal  tissues.  It  causes  traumatism 
and  a  pathology.  But  the  insect  is  not  transmitted 


IMMUNITY  FROM   POISONS  AND  DISEASES.     65 

by  heredity,  nor  is  its  pathology  transmitted.  The 
reason  is  that  neither  of  them  are  physiological 
variations  of  the  tissue  cells,  acquired  by  use  or  dis- 
use, and  therefore  they  do  not  enter  the  current  of 
hereditary  transmission.  That  which  is  transmitted 
in  disease  is  simply  a  weak  resistance  to  the  poison 
of  disease.  When  an  immunity  to  poison  is  acquired, 
this  is  transmitted,  because  it  is  a  physiological  ac- 
quirement which,  when  transmitted,  secures  general 
immunity  to  this  disease. 

It  is  easy  indeed  to  observe  these  same  laws  of 
natural  selection  in  operation  in  the  physiological 
action  of  the  vegetable  and  mineral  poisons.  All 
observers  know  that  when  any  given  poison  is  taken 
habitually  the  result  is  inevitably  an  increased  toler- 
ance or  immunity  to  the  poison,  with  a  demand  on 
the  part  of  the  cells  for  a  continuance  of  the  poison 
or  inebriety. 

Under  the  law  of  variation  or  adaptation  the  cells 
acquire  most  remarkable  powers  of  toleration  ;  ine- 
briates of  opium,  alcohol,  arsenic,  and  other  drugs 
take  enormous  quantities  of  these  poisons. 

The  demand  of  the  poisoned  cells  for  poison  is 
explained  by  the  same  law  of  adaptation.  No  vari- 
ation of  any  organism  is  free  from  difficulty,  though 
the  remote  results  may  be  in  every  way  beneficial. 
\Yhen  an  alcoholic  inebriate  enters  upon  a  debauch 
he  drinks  generally  to  unconsciousness.  The  reason 
is  that  the  poisoning"  of  the  cells  is  painful  and 
their  necessary  suspension  of  the  usual  physiology 
and  labors  to  resist  the  alcohol  are  painful.  Alco- 


66          THE    \0\  HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

hoi  is  an  anaesthetic,  and  if  more  is  drank  during  the 
debauch  the  pain  of  poisoning  is  thereby  lessened. 
For  this  reason  the  inebriate  drinks  himself  into 
coma,  anaesthesia,  paralysis,  and,  sometimes,  death. 
But  there  is  another  factor  to  this  problem.  During 
a  prolonged  debauch  from  any  poison  the  demand 
for  the  poison  seems  imperative.  This  is  due  to  the 
distress  of  atavistic  variation  of  nerve  centres,  tis- 
sues, and  cells.  If  the  poison  is  omitted  there  is  a 
new  condition  of  environment  ;  a  new  adaptation 
must  follow  on  the  part  of  the  poisoned  tissues.  As 
this  new  condition  is  like  that  which  existed  before 
the  poison  was  taken,  this  new  adaptation  and  vari- 
ation is  called  atavism,  or  a  reversal  to  the  type  of 
the  ancestor  or  ancestral  conditions.  In  all  types 
of  inebriety  this  change  is  difficult  and  in  some  ine- 
briates it  is  almost  impossible.  It  makes  no  differ- 
ence that  the  remote  effects  and  conditions  may  be 
in  every  way  beneficial. 

In  poisoning  and  disease  a  similar  law  controls 
certain  phenomena.  Immunity  from  disease  ac- 
quired by  having  the  disease,  or  by  inoculation  or 
vaccination,  is  lost  again.  When  an  inebriate  re- 
forms and  is  cured,  in  time  he  loses  a  great  part  of 
his  tolerance  to  his  favorite  poisons  ;  if  he  resumes 
his  inebriety  he  must  begin  again  with  a  compara- 
tively small  dose. 

These  facts  are  explained  by  that  factor  of  natu- 
ral selection  called  atavism,  the  meaning  of  which 
is,  a  reversal  to  former  conditions.  Atavism  is 
nothing  different  from  variation  or  adaptation.  It 


IMMUNITY  FROM    POISON'S  AND   DISEASES.     67 

indicates  only  the  direction  of  the  variation.  When 
disease  poison  is  removed,  or  other  poison  is  not 
taken,  the  poisoned  cells  are  placed  in  a  new  en- 
vironment ;  hence  thev  gradually  lose  their  immu- 
nity and  tolerance  to  these  poisons. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SOCIAL  RELATIONS  OF  POISONS  AND   THEIR 
CURE. 

I  CLAIM  that  poison  is  the  underlying  evil  of 
human  life — the  Mephistopheles  of  society.  It 
is  the  foundation  of  moral  evil  and  the  cause  of 
death  ;  it  is  to  blame  for  the  low  average  duration 
of  human  life  ;  it  entails  endless  and  multiple  sor- 
row, and,  indirectly,  superinduces  poverty.  Poison 
was  the  serpent  of  Eden  ;  the  bone  of  the  tempter's 
fang  was  a  literal  chemical  poison,  as  an  antitype  of 
the  evils  of  life;  and  when  the  human  race  passed 
out  of  the  gate  under  the  flaming  sword  it  entered 
the  arena  with  disease,  debauchery,  crimes,  and  pre- 
mature death,  because  the  Satan  of  poison  must  be 
overcome  by  sacrifice,  by  atonement,  by  faith,  and 
by  the  evolution  of  science. 

In  each  million  of  human  beings  we  find  one 
centenarian  ;  so  say  the  statistics.  The  meaning  of 
this  is  that  one  person  in  every  million  has  the 
power  of  resisting  the  influence  of  poisons  for  one 
hundred  years.  This  man  or  woman  may  have  had 
many  diseases — may  have  used  poisons  as  a  dissipa- 
tion and  lived  in  a  poisoned  air,  fed  on  adulterated 
food  and  yet  have  come  through  them  all  and 
reached  the  grand  centennial  of  human  life.  But 

68 


POISONS    AND    THKIK    Cl'RE.  69 

now  special  sense  is  failing  ;  hearing"  and  sight  are 
weak  and  uncertain.  The  brain  is  shrunken  nearly 
one-third  in  actual  weight  ;  its  plastic  or  receptive 
qualities  are  nearly  gone.  Thought  is  no  longer 
created  in  his  mind,  but  when  a  spark  of  conscious- 
ness is  aroused  it  turns  about,  and,  nudging  memory, 
the  two  ransack  the  catacombs  of  the  old  man's 
mind  for  the  buried  ideas  and  memories  of  the  past. 
Old  age  lives  on  its  own  youth,  according  to  the 
law  of  nature.  Youth  and  mid-life  have  made  the 
propertv,  and  during  this  period  the  mind  is  built 
up;  the  centenarian  eats  the  bread  of  his  working- 
day  providence,  and  his  mind  is  also  the  product  of 
his  industrial  age.  Things  of  vesterdav  with  him 
are  trifles.  Happenings  of  fiftv  years  ago  are  the 
mountains  of  his  mcmorv,  that  rise  clad  in  green 
verdure  from  the  stony  desert  of  the  present. 
tions  in  their  rise-,  dccav,  and  fall  exhibit  the  same 
tvpcs  and  forms.  These  things  I  think  present  the 
greatest  questions  that  are  of  interest  in  human 
study.  The  two  great  questions  are,  how  d< 
man  or  one  woman  in  a  million  succeed  in  resisting 
the  poisons  of  death  for  one  hundred  years,  and 
why  does  he  necessarily  grow  old  and  die  from 
old  aL 

The  study  of  one  of  the  poisons,  or  alcoholism, 
has  led  me  to  think  much  on  the  subject  of  poisons 
in  general,  with  their  general  effects  upon  the  peo- 
ple in  their  physical  as  well  as  ultimate  moral  re- 
sults. The  studv  of  poisons  would  appear  to  be  the 
key  to  an  understanding  of  human  life.  The  failure 


70          THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

to  live  long  is  due  to  poisons.  The  decay  of  the 
organism  of  life  and  the  inevitable  heritage  of  old 
age,  with  its  degeneration,  are  closely  associated 
with  the  results  of  poison.  The  latter  is  a  stimu- 
lus to  the  forces  of  life  which  is  paid  for  in  human 
sacrifice.  It  is  a  tariff  of  youth  which  is  balanced 
by  the  penalty  of  early  death  and  the  decrepitude 
of  age.  A  study  of  poisons,  disease  poisons  and 
alcohol,  will  show  us  the  general  laws  of  poisoning 
relating  to  the  acquiring  of  the  power  to  resist  them 
for  a  few  years  or  many  years,  and  will  further  show 
this  relation  as  to  the  causes  of  the  failure  of  life 
from  what  is  called  old  age,  and,  incidentally,  the 
relation  of  poisons  to  moral  evil. 

All  people  know  the  ordinary  diseases  caused  by 
poisons — the  poisons  of  the  microbe.  They  are  the 
diseases  of  children,  as  scarlatina,  diphtheria,  etc., 
and  those  of  later  life,  as  consumption,  typhoid, 
pneumonia,  and  many  others.  These  diseases  de- 
stroy life  ;  they  cause  poverty  by  their  expenses. 
They  mutilate,  deform,  and  often  permanently  de- 
stroy the  earning  powers  of  many  people  by  reason 
of  their  dire  physical  or  mental  results.  They  lead 
also  to  intemperance,  for  the  reason  that  there  is  no 
one  remedy  so  universally  used  in  these  diseases  as 
alcohol.  The  latter  cannot  be  used  as  a  remedy,  or 
in  any  other  manner,  without  causing  a  proportion- 
ate disease  of  inebriety. 

But  we  observe  now  a  great  conservative  law  of 
nature.  This  is  that  one  attack  of  disease  prevents 
future  attacks  of  the  same  disease.  At  least  this  is 


POISON'S   AND   Till: IK    CURE.  ?i 

the  law,  with  the  usual  limitations  that  go  with  all 
such  universal  rules.  \Ve  learn,  also,  that  this 
power  of  resistance,  given  by  one  attack  of  disease 
or  one  case  of  the  action  of  poisoning,  has  more  or 
less  permanence,  and  has  greater  or  less  hereditary 
force.  \Ve  find,  likewise,  that,  whatever  deformity 
the  disease  may  cause  or  however  permanent  the 
deformity  may  be  in  the  individual,  it  has  no 
hereditary  force  whatever.  A  child  may  have  deaf- 
ness or  blindness,  from  disease  of  these  respective 
organs,  as  a  result  of  scarlet  fever  ;  but  these  de- 
formities are  not  hereditary.  The  little  increment, 
however,  of  immunity  gained  by  the  child  is  hered- 
itary. If  it  were  true  that  disease  is  hereditary,  the 
deafness  and  blindness  caused  by  these  disc; 
would  have  made  the  people  of  Kurope  deal  and 
blind  generations  ago.  But  the  tolerance  to  poi- 
sons, or  the  immunity  given  from  disease  created 
by  the  poison  of  disease-,  is  hereditary.  If  dis< 
were  hereditary,  humanity  would  be  a  crippled  de- 
formity. The  reason  this  world  is  still  inhabited, 
having  civilization  and  free  institutions,  is  because  ot 
the  immunity  given  by  heredity,  under  the  law  that 
one  attack  of  disease  prevents  future  attacks  of  the 
same  disease.  This  law  is  a  part  of  organic  nature 
and  a  thought  of  great  Final  Design. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  the  heredity  of  disease. 
People  who  hold  the  contrary  of  this  do  not  know 
what  disease  is,  nor  the  laws  of  heredity.  They  do 
not  think  what  the  results  would  be  if  disease  were 
hereditary,  directly  as  well  as  indirectly.  In 


72          THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

heredity  it  is  true  that  people  cannot  inherit  what 
their  ancestors  do  not  have  ;  if  their  ancestors  have 
only  a  very  weak  tolerance  to  disease  poison,  the 
children  must  inherit  this  weak  tolerance.  It  ap- 
pears that  in  relation  to  many  diseases  the  human 
race  was  created,  or  was  descended,  with  no  im- 
munity; although  it  is  well  known  that  some  of  the 
diseases  of  the  lower  animals  have  no  power  over 
the  human  organism.  The  emancipation  of  the 
human  race  from  sin,  moral  evil,  poverty,  crimes, 
diseases  and  poisonings,  so  far  as  nature  is  con- 
cerned, lies  in  the  fact  that  disease  is  not  hereditary; 
while  the  tolerance  created  by  having  diseases  is  a 
property  of  heredity. 

There  is  no  type  of  poisoning  that  does  not  cor- 
respond to  these  laws.  Old  alcoholized  nations 
consume  immense  quantities  of  the  drug,  per  capita, 
with  corresponding  inebriety  ;  but  the  actual  fatal- 
ities decrease  in  proportionate  ratio  to  the  genera- 
tions and  to  the  tolerance  gained.  This  is  nature's 
way  of  preventing  intemperance ;  or,  rather,  the  re- 
sults of  poisoning.  When  alcohol  is  first  supplied 
to  a  nation,  not  used  to  drink,  the  result  is  fatal  in 
proportion  to  the  amount  furnished  and  drank.  The 
Polynesians  are  now  dying  off  under  these  circum- 
stances. If  any  African  tribe  were  supplied  with 
beer,  as  the  German  or  English  nation  is  now,  the 
tribe  would  soon  be  a  relic  of  history.  The  saving- 
clause  of  alcoholic  license  is  that  a  tolerance  to 
alcohol  is  created  in  each  nation,  somewhat  in  pro- 
portion to  its  increasing  facilities  for  manufacture, 


POISONS   AND   THEIR    CURE.  73 

general  distribution,  and  consumption.  The  toler- 
ance to  the  poisonous  action  is  hereditary.  The 
children  of  old  families,  whose  ancestry  were  the 
bottle  heroes  of  the  dinner  table,  are  drinkers  ;  but 
inebriety  among  them  is  not  so  pronounced.  They 
can  tolerate  more  alcohol  with  less  poisonous  effects. 
It  does  not  follow  that  in  order  to  save  his  progeny 
a  man  should  become  an  inebriate,  or  have  all  dis- 
eases. Nature's  method  is  too  slow,  and  science 
has  one  much  superior  to  it,  It  is  well  to  cure  ine- 
briety and  practice  sanitation  in  relation  to  other 
diseases  ;  but  if  people,  as  individuals  or  nations, 
will  not  use  their  brains  in  relation  to  these  things, 
there  is  no  other  name  given  for  this  physical  salva- 
tion from  poisons  than  the  heredity  of  an  acquired 
tolerance  to  the  action  of  these  causes  of  destruc- 
tion. Disease  is  horrible  and  loathsome.  Through 
its  evil  agency  the  nobility  and  strength  of  man- 
hood, the  beauty,  the  loveliness,  the  grace  of 
womanhood,  the  beloved  charms  of  childhood  lose 
their  strength  and  beauty  and  are  only  the  poisoned 
ruins  of  humanity.  The  most  pitiful  manifestations 
of  mind  are  the  delusions  of  fever  ;  the  most  horri- 
ble disguise  of  the  human  face  is  the  eruption  or 
the  emaciation  of  disease.  The  most  horrible  thing 
to  contemplate  is  the  slow  poisoning  and  gradual 
consumption  of  the  vital  organs  of  a  human  being 
by  the  parasites  of  disease.  Poverty,  slavery,  exile, 
and  the  oppression  of  victorious  armies,  the  fam- 
ines, wars,  and  martyrdoms  of  the  world  arc  peace- 
ful smiles  on  the  roseate  face  of  humanity  as 


74          THE    XOX-HEREUITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

compared  with  the  deep  lines  of  agony  made  by 
the  ravages  of  poison.  Debauchery  from  alcohol 
pictures  the  worst  type  of  humanity  in  its  fallen 
condition.  In  a  few  hours  the  proud  protector  of  a 
family,  mayhap  the  peer  of  the  very  noblest  of  the 
earth  in  station,  position,  learning,  and  success,  lies 
low  in  the  semblance  of  death.  Consciousness  and 
volition  are  gone.  Thought  is  dead.  The  wretched 
stupor  of  alcoholic  coma  has  the  brain  in  its  grasp  ; 
where  once  the  proud  intellect  directed  thought 
there  is  now  a  deluge  of  poison  ;  alcohol  has  filled 
the  valley  and  covers  even  the  highlands  of  the 
mind  and  soul.  But  the  deluge  recedes  and  finally 
a  shamed  consciousness  bearing  a  palm  leaf  flies  to 
the  window  of  the  frail  ark  of  life.  The  mind  is 
restored  to  the  agony  of  remorse,  and  sickened  de- 
sire, which  has  outridden  the  storm  of  poison,  like 
Noah  of  old  seeks  the  dry  land  of  reason  and  sense, 
only  to  plant  another  vine.  The  craving  for  drink 
is  hidden  in  the  fruit  of  that  poison  vine.  It  is  the 
craving  for  drink  which  follows  the  drunkard's  de- 
bauch, as  the  track  of  the  serpent  follows  his  jour- 
ney over  the  flowers  of  Eden.  The  craving  for 
drink  is  the  pain,  the  sting,  and  the  living  conscious- 
ness of  inebriety.  The  craving  is  the  knight-errant 
of  King  Alcohol,  seated  on  a  horse  and  armed  with 
a  spear  and  shield.  The  knight  may  preach  a  chiv- 
alrous devotion  to  the  relief  of  a  suffering  soul  ;  but 
we  know  that  until  his  shield  is  broken,  his  lance 
splintered,  and  he  is  unhorsed,  King  Alcohol  will 


POISON'S    AND    THEIR    CURE.  75 

rule  that  soul   as   never   tyrant   or  despot  ruled  his 
people. 

The  records  of  the  courts  tell  us  that  inebriety 
underlies  crime.  Inebriety  is  insanity,  and  the  insane 
are  the  criminals.  Inebriety  is  improvident  and 
wastes  the  earnings  ;  is  improvident  and  dors  not 
earn.  The  wages  of  the  industrious  are  taxed  to 
punish  the  victims  of  alcohol  with  fine  and  impris- 
onment, for  crimes  clone  while  the  victim  is  drunk 
and  mentally  and  morally  irresponsible.  The  vio- 
lently insane  were  formerly  punished  with  the  lash, 
or  bound  and  thrown  into  dungeons.  Cruelty  was 
the  earliest  born  of  ignorance  and  poison.  The 
little  hereditary  increment  of  tolerance  to  poison, 
which  has  fallen  like  the  dews  from  heaven  oxer  tin- 
generations,  has  taught  men  at  last  that  the  divinity 
of  mercy  is  a  child  of  the  human  mind  and  the 
product  of  the  imposed  necessity  to  which  the  hu- 
man race  is  subject  in  working  out  its  own  salvation 
from  poisons. 

Grief  is  the  handmaid  of  poison.  I  wonder  some 
old  master  did  not  give  us  this  picture  of  poison — a 
heroic  skeleton,  armed  with  his  emblematic  CP 
bones,  and  accompanied  bv  the  sable-clad  and 
wee-ping  figure  of  sorrow,  as  they  walk  to  and  fro  in 
the  earth.  From  the  very  footprints  of  this  stroll- 
ing pair  spring  the  giants  of  social  and  moral  evils. 
Lives  are  ruined  and  minds  arc  wrecked  bv  grief. 
The  sorrow  of  Rachel  mourning  for  her  babes  echoes 
from  the  mountains  and  hills  of  history  back  to  tin- 


76          THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

brains  and  hearts  of  humanity,  and  calls  for  eman- 
cipation from  disease  and  poison.  Poison  strangles 
the  babe  even  in  the  mother's  arms.  It  enters  the 
homes,  and  in  the  name  of  disease  or  debauchery 
slays  the  hero  of  happiness  and  makes  a  slave  of 
the  heroine  to  sorrow.  There  is  no  sorrow  like  that 
which  waits  upon  early  death.  Throughout  the 
world  of  mind  it  is  a  pall  which  covers  supreme 
effort  and  constant  endeavor  and  shades  the  human 
heart  from  the  sunlight  of  happiness. 

The  continued  existence  of  the  centenarian  is  a 
curiosity  and  his  death  is  expected.  His  business 
is  arranged,  his  labors  ended.  Grief  long  ago  grew 
tired  of  him  and  went  on  her  busy  way  ;  the  loving 
and  reverent  hearts  which  are  bound  to  his  person- 
ality are  ready  to  say,  "  Thy  will  be  done,"  and  not 
be  broken.  The  centenarian  gradually  lets  go  of 
the  threads  of  life.  His  consciousness  is  fading 
into  the  nirvana  of  the  soul,  and  the  cradle  of  his 
old  age  is  rocked  by  the  tender  hand  of  euthanasia. 
People  curiously  ask  why  it  is  that  one  person  in 
a  million  can  live  to  be  a  centenarian?  If  one  can 
live  so  long,  why  not  all  of  us?  The  curious  gath- 
erer of  statistics  makes  a  visit  and  asks  questions, 
trying  to  learn  the  secret  of  long  life ;  for  long  life 
is  supposed  to  be  due  to  some  single  thing  of  mind, 
conscience,  or  diet  or  drink.  The  queries  and 
answers  on  these  occasions  are  always  amusing  if 
not  instructive ;  but  nature  eludes  such  investiga- 
tions after  the  secret  of  long  life.  I  have  seen 
many  publications  of  interviews  with  old  people, 


POISONS   AND   THEIR   CUF  77 

who  told  of  their  customs  and  habits  of  life  ;  but 
each  case  seemed  to  have  a  secret  of  its  own  and  no 
two  were  alike- 
There  is  a  secret,  however,  to  long  life.  For 
centuries  and  generations  nature  has  been  at  work 
on  every  living  cell  of  vegetable  and  animal  life, 
slowly  reconstructing  and  fortifying  them  against 
poison.  The  work  is  like  taking  a  fair  country 
and  building  forts  along  the  rivers  and  walls 
about  the  cities,  to  keep  off  invading  armies.  1 
pie  will  not  build  defenses  until  they  feel  the 
enemy  ;  nature  acts  in  the  same  manner.  When  the 
poison  comes  nature  begins  to  build  defenses.  Kach 
animal  cell  gains  an  increment  of  tolerance  with 
each  invasion  of  poison.  This  reconstruction  is, 
part  of  it  certainly,  transmitted  by  heredity.  In 
time  the  results  begin  to  appear — diseases  die  out 
and  people  live  longer.  During  the  passing  of  gen- 
erations, by  this  process  we  get  the  history  of  de- 
caying epidemics  and  the  phenomenon  of  the 
decrepit  centenarian,  who  is  a  curiosity  because  he 
has  outlived  his  day.  Hut  why  do  people  grow  old 
in  appearance  and  constitution  as  well  as  years? 
\Vhy  should  not  a  human  life  renew  itself  with  per- 
ennial vigor,  and  hand  in  hand  with  the  centuries 
journey  along,  wearing  the  crown  of  earthly  immor- 
tality? What  mistake  of  creation,  or  misstep  of 
evolution,  has  determined  the  average  duration  of 
human  life  to  be  thirty-five  years,  and  that  only  one 
in  a  million  shall  live  to  be  one  hundred  years  old? 
Jn  old  age  the  bones  grow  brittle,  the  muscles 


7<  THE    XOX-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

wither,  the  brain  shrinks,  the  face  wrinkles,  the 
functions  are  feeble,  and  the  withered  old  man  with 
the  mind  of  a  child  sinks  down  into  the  earth 
whence  he  came,  as  one  wraps  the  mantle  of  his 
couch  about  him  and  seeks  a  dreamless  rest.  In 
some  manner  all  living  things  inherit  the  tendency  to 
grow  old  and  die.  The  inanimate  creation  exhibits 
an  analogous  action.  The  great  mountains  are 
beaten  by  storms  and  drops  of  rain  ;  the  ground 
granite  of  their  mighty  forms  is  dissolved  and  scat- 
tered as  loam  in  the  valleys  and  washed  into  the 
bottom  of  the  sea.  No  doubt  the  planets  and  even 
the  suns  have  their  duration  of  life  and  their  time 
to  change.  Stars  that  were  shining  suns  have  been 
seen  to  blaze  with  surprising  glory  and  disappear 
forever.  There  is  an  eternal  round  of  change  of 
matter  from  nebulse  to  planet  and  sun.  The  organic 
material  which  is  bound  into  the  forms  and  types  of 
life  lives  and  dies  over  and  over  again.  One  day 
an  organic  tissue  may  form  the  grass  and  flower  of 
the  field,  the  next  day  it  is  the  food  of  the  market, 
and  the  next  it  may  occupy  as  tissue  the  human 
brain,  to  engage  in  a  new  invention  or  plan  a  new 
campaign  of  political  economics.  But  I  believe 
that  if  destiny  does  transmit  the  necessity  of  death 
to  all  living  things,  still  human  life  is  too  short,  and 
I  think  the  cause  is  poison.  By  this  I  mean  that 
neither  one  hundred  nor  several  hundred  years 
should  cause  the  physical  degeneration  of  age  as 
we  see  it  now. 

The  only  way  of  explanation  is  that  life  is  short- 


POISONS   AND  THKIR    CURE.  79 

ened  by  poisoning.  I  have  likened  the  changes  in  the 
cells  of  the  tissues  caused  by  poisoning  and  the  varia- 
tion of  type  which  gives  the  cell  its  resistance  to 
poison,  to  that  which  a  country  undergoes  to  enable 
it  to  resist  an  invading  army.  In  place  of  fields  of 
grain  are  battlefields  with  entrenchments,  forts,  and 
the  various  types  and  forms  of  defense.  The  energy 
of  the  country  is  diverted  from  directions  more  con- 
ducive to  long  life  to  those  of  labor  and  expense  in 
building  works  and  institutions  that  are  of  no  use 
except  in  war.  \Yar  is  not  beneficial  ;  it  is  not 
development  ;  it  is  sinful  and  morally  debasing. 
Thousands  are  slain  ;  the  country  remains  poor  ;  its 
culture,  wealth,  and  ethics  linger  along  the  way  of 
growth  and  increase.  In  time  energy  becomes 
hausted,  and  perhaps  a  premature  death  of  the  nation 
and  government  follows. 

The  same  law  holds  good  in  poisoning.  When 
poison  is  taken  it  necessitates  a  building  of  defenses. 
Every  tissue  cell  of  the  body,  feeling  poison,  calls 
its  resources  into  action  and  begins  to  build  defenses. 
Each  tissue  cell  is  filled  with  fortifications  and  de- 
fenses built  at  its  own  expense.  The  defenses  may 
be  sufficient  to  protect  from  the  enemy,  but  the 
expenditure  of  energy  and  the  great  waste  of  accu- 
mulations lessen  the  duration  of  life  of  the  cell  and 
make  it  prematurely  withered  and  old.  It  is  aged 
before  its  day  and  its  early  decay  is  due  to  the  fight, 
an  exhausting  fight  with  the  great  arch  enemy  of 
life — poison.  Like  tissue  and  cell,  like  man.  I  do 
not  think  that  the  early  decay  of  human  organs  and 


8o          THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

types  is  hereditary  as  a  direct  result  of  hereditary 
forces,  but  as  an  indirect  result  of  the  waste  of  energy 
in  fighting  poisons. 

Forts,  towers,  and  battlements  deface  the  fair 
features  of  the  landscape.  On  the  face  of  a  civilized 
country  the  institutions  of  war  are  a  deformity.  In 
the  human  being  the  scars  of  injury  and  the  deformi- 
ties of  tissues  caused  by  the  battlements  erected  to 
resist  poison,  disfigure  the  fair  type  of  life  and  de- 
form the  beauty  of  nature's  high  conception  of  the 
beautiful,  the  good,  and  the  true. 

The  victim  of  alcohol  is  prematurely  old.  His 
decrepitude  and  shrunken  tissues  may  be  hidden  by 
the  horrible  bloating  or  congestion  of  his  flesh,  and 
poison  may  color  this  deception  with  an  imitation 
of  the  tinge  of  health  ;  but  when  the  poison  is  taken 
away  we  see  the  body  shrink  to  its  true  proportions. 
The  withered  muscles  have  the  shrunken  form  of 
age.  The  face  of  the  youth  and  middle-aged  will 
show  the  time-furrows  of  the  octogenarian.  Diges- 
tion is  feeble,  and  until  nature  has  time  to  do  the 
work  of  rebuilding  the  cured  inebriate  he  will  look 
like  the  stooping  and  attenuated  victim  of  many 
years.  We  need  no  better  example  or  proof  of  the 
causes  of  so-called  old  age.  It  is  not  old  age.  The 
centenarian  is  young  in  years  ;  the  years  have  not 
beaten  him  down.  The  winters  have  housed  and  fed 
him,  the  springs  of  the  year  have  invited  him  to 
walk  among  the  buds  of  beauty  and  the  resurrection 
of  life,  the  summers  have  given  him  the  harvests,  and 
the  autumns  have  garnered  his  grains  and  his  wealth, 


POISONS    AM)    THF.IR    CURE.  Si 

\Yhv  should  seasons  and  their  vears  make  him  old  ? 
He  is  not  old  ;  lie  is  poisoned.  Disease  has  eaten 
his  roots  of  life  and  his  defenses  have  taken  away 
their  soil  to  build  entrenchments. 

The  inebriate  is  a  type  of  poisoned  organism 
which  has  wasted  its  energy  in  the  defense  of  poi- 
son. The  tissues  are  made  insane  by  debauch  and, 
like  terrified  animals  in  a  conflagration,  seek  t< 
danger  by  rushing  back  into  the  flames.  The  in- 
ebriate in  a  debauch  will  take  drink  after  drink  in 
obedience  to  his  craving,  until  coma  and  paralysis 
have  bound  his  brain  and  limbs  with  the  appearance 
of  death.  When  the  debauch  is  ended  his  body  i.v 
consumed  and  wasted,  the  tissues  which  are  not  dead 
are  burdened  with  overwork,  and  the  degradation  of 
deformity  wails  upon  his  restoration  to  activity  and 
life. 

Diseases  are  not  cured.  By  this  I  mean  the  dis- 
eases and  poisonings  of  the  microbe.  Drugs  may 
mischievously  antagonize  the  saving  symptoms, 
which  are  only  true  sisters  of  mercy  clad  in  the 
white  and  black  vesture  of  the  nurse  ;  but  drugs  do 
not  cure  these  diseases.  The  diseases  are  cured 
when  the  tissues  of  the  body  have  acquired  a  toler- 
ance to  the  poison  of  disease.  Then  the  disr. 
comes  to  an  end,  the  microbe  dies  and  ceases  ib 
manufacture  of  poison.  If  the  microbe  could 
increase  its  poison  as  the  distillery  can,  then  no  dis- 
ease would  have  an  ending.  No  tolerance  can 
overcome  the  liberty  of  drinking  and  the  poisoning 
of  alcohol.  But  inebriety  is  curable.  The  craving 


THE    NON   HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

yields  to  cure.  The  disease  is  more  readily  curable 
than  any  other  type  of  poisoning.  The  desire  for 
alcohol  that  rises  above  the  will  and  sense  and 
judgment,  as  the  great  mountain  stands  above  the 
foothills  and  the  rugged  plain,  is  subdued  and  the 
disease  gives  way  to  health  ;  rational  thought  and 
self-control  resume  their  place  in  the  conduct  of 
the  regenerated  inebriate. 

All  ethical  philosophy  points  to  the  final  moral 
perfection  of  humanity.  The  forces  of  heredity 
sustain  the  logic  of  philosophy.  It  is  believed  that 
selfishness  will  die  like  a  disease  and  the  true  divin- 
ity of  altruism  guide  the  moral  conduct  of  men. 
But  this  day  and  result  are  impossible  until  poison 
is  eradicated  as  a  factor  of  human  life.  There  is 
no  possible  moral  perfection,  in  the  brain  that  is 
perverted  by  poison  in  its  structure,  thought,  and 
conduct.  The  emancipation  of  humanity  from  the 
slavery  of  crimes,  debauchery,  insanity,  and  disease 
hinges  upon  the  banishment  of  poisons,  when  moral 
perfection  will  follow  the  resulting  greatly  increased 
duration  of  human  life. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE   MIND  IN   HKAI.TII  AND 
DISEASE. 

TI I  K  mind,  acting  under  conscious  direction  or 
automatically,  gives  bias  to  the  conduct  and 
labor  of  all  species  of  the  animal  kingdom  in  their 
methods  of  gaining  a  living.  \Ye  find  in  the  lower 
tvj)cs  of  animal  life,  therefore,  sensation,  special 
sense,  consciousness,  will,  and  intellect.  The  human 
mind  is  built  up  bv  evolution  from  these  funda- 
mental factors  as  thcv  exist  in  the  lower  tvpes  of 
life.  The  great  action  of  the  mind  over  the  bodv, 
then,  in  health,  so  far  as  evidence  of  mind  can  be 
traced  in  the  lower  animals,  is  to  enable  the  indi- 
vidual, or  specie's  or  genera,  to  so  adjust  itself  to  its 
environment  as  to  earn  or  secure  its  living  or 
maintain  successfully  the  "  struggle  for  existen 
The  adaptation  of  any  living-  being,  having  mental 
powers,  to  its  surrounding  circumstances  is  made  bv 
mental  adjustments  of  simple  or  more  complex 
character,  and  the  mind,  acting  through  the  nerves 
and  in  no  other  manner,  secures  as  far  as  possible 
the  work  required. 

This  action  of  mind  in  health  is  directed  exter- 
nally, or  upon  external  objects.  It  is  the  action  of 
the  mind  through  the  body,  to  enable  the  individual 
to  acquire  tin-  means  of  living. 

83 


84          THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

The  mind  in  health  has  powerful  influence  over 
the  physiological  functions  of  the  body.  It  can 
avert  digestion,  cause  heart  failure,  paralyze  the 
muscles,  destroy  sensation,  or  stop  the  functions  of 
the  special  senses.  It  can  increase,  on  the  other 
hand,  all  these  functions,  as  well  as  cause  perver- 
sions of  their  action.  It  can  excite  the  auditory 
nerve  and  hear  sounds  that  do  not  prevail  ;  it  can 
pervert  the  vision  and  see  objects  which  never  ex- 
isted. It  can  exalt  sensation,  or  prevent  it,  so  that 
objects  are  felt  which  have  being  only  in  the  imagi- 
nation. Mental  and  bodily  influences  are  mutual. 
Bodily  diseases,  as  those  of  the  brain,  nerves,  or 
other  organs,  cause  insanity.  The  retention  in  the 
body  of  leucomaines — the  poisons  made  by  the  body 
itself — can  cause  mental  diseases,  as  melancholia, 
mania,  and  even  complete  disruption  of  all  mental 
faculties.  ,  The  fact  is  that  the  mutual  relations  of 
body  and  mind  appear  to  be  so  finely  adjusted  and 
mentally  dependent  that  any  disorder  of  body  will 
cause  corresponding  mental  perturbation,  while  any 
mental  disorder  will  cause  relative  bodily  disease. 

These  general  propositions  give  the  outline  of 
the  mental  and  bodily  relations,  as  these  relations 
operate  in  connection  with  the  outside  world  in  the 
business  of  life,  in  getting  a  living  and  in  the  main- 
tenance of  life,  in  health  and  disease;  also  as  men- 
tal influence  is  exerted  over  the  functions  and  phys- 
iology of  the  body. 

But  we  must  now  look  at  the  subject  from  a  more 
special  standpoint.  The  question  will  be  asked, 


THE    MIND    IN    HEALTH    AND   DISEASE.  5 

what  is  mind  and  how  does  it  act  upon  the  exter- 
nal world  and  upon  the  body?  We  want  to  know  how 
the  mind  acts,  and  if  there  is  a  limit  to  its  action  ; 
if  it  is  bound  and  limited  by  any  conditions. 

In  the  stud}-  of  what  mind  is,  the  great  problem 
is  approached  from  two  opposite  standpoints.  (  )ne 
opinion  is  that  mind  is  a  spirit,  or  an  entity,  which 
exists  independently  of  organized  or  living  matter. 
The  other  is  that  it  is  a  force,  and  the  product  in 
each  case  of  the  individual  bodily  energies  of  phys- 
iology. The  first  of  these  goes  so  far  as  to  claim 
that  all  matter  is  mind  ;  the  second  that  all 

mind  is  matter. 

These  opinions  originate  from  the  necessary 
ception  by  the  human  mind  of  the  world  and  uni- 
verse, bound  as  this  is  by  the  fact  that  human 
knowledge  is  relative  and  not  absolute.  \Ve  under- 
stand only  the  relations  between  things  and  phe- 
nomena ;  we  do  not  know  the  actual  or  absolute 
qualities  of  anything.  We  only  comprehend  the 
relations  of  likeness  and  unlikeness  between  things 
and  phenomena.  With  this  understanding  of  the 
limited  power  of  the  human  intellect  we  realize  that 
one  part  of  the  universe  is  unknowable  to  us,  and 
the  other  part  we  may  know  if  we  will.  We  grasp 
the  relations  between  things  and  phenomena,  but 
we  do  not  know  the  reality  of  things  and  phenom- 
ena, or  their  absolute  qualities. 

The  unknowable  world  is  supernature,  and  we 
are  in  the  habit  of  designating  our  classified  neces- 
sarv  ignorance  of  this  subject  as  supernatural  ism. 


86          THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

The  world  that  we  do  know  is  called  nature  ;  our 
knowledge  of  the  accurate  relations  of  the  phenom- 
ena of  nature  is  called  science.  We  may  infer, 
then,  from  these  facts  that  we  will  never  know  any 
more  than  we  now  do  about  the  absolute  qualities 
of  either  mind  or  matter.  In  the  study  of  any 
questions  relating  to  either  we  are  compelled  to 
limit  our  investigations  to  the  methods  of  science 
as  they  relate  to  the  phenomena  of  nature.  The 
phenomena  of  nature  which  are  knowable  to  us — 
the  forms  and  physical  qualities  of  matter,  organic 
and  inorganic,  and  the  manifestations  of  force, 
physical  or  vital  —  are  recognized  as  manifestations 
of  the  unknown  absolute.  Electricity,  light,  heat, 
chemical  force,  magnetic  force,  together  with  mind 
and  all  of  the  physiological  forces,  as  well  as  all  the 
physical  phenomena  of  nature,  we  recognize  as 
manifestations  of  a  " fundamental  verity  "  or  "abso- 
luteness," of  which  we  know  nothing  except  its 
works. 

We  know  mind  only  by  its  relations  to  other 
things  and  forces.  We  cannot  therefore  say  what 
mind  is  absolutely.  We  have  no  language  except 
that  of  science  to  express  what  is  meant  by  it.  To 
say  that  mind  is  a  self-existent  entity  explains  noth- 
ing, for  we  do  not  know  what  a  self-existent  entity  is. 
We  only  know  the  manifestations  of  mind  as  they  are 
expressed  through  the  nerves,  or  are  reacted  upon  by 
the  same  agents.  We  have  no  method  of  defining 
life  in  scientific  terms  except  to  say  that  it  is  the 
maintenance  of  certain  conditions  that  exist  be- 


TilK    MINI)    IN    HEALTH    AND    DISEASE.         ^7 

nvecn  the  relations  of  external  things  and  the  phys- 
iological or  internal  relations.  \Ye  cannot  define 
mind  except  in  the  same  terms  and  language. 

The  next  great  question  is,  how  does  the  mind 
exert  an  influence  over  the  bodily  functions  and 
conditions  in  health  and  disea 

The  farther  back  one  goes  in  the  history  of" 
philosophies  the  more-  theoretical  supernaturalism 
he  will  find  in  the  attempt  to  explain  the  method 
of  the  action  of  mind  in  relation  to  life  and  living- 
things.  The  first  great  iuea  of  this  chant 

•rts  that  the  Supreme  Power  simply  said  in 
effect,  let  all  things  be  d,  and  they  \ver< 

once  brought  into  existence,  supernaturally,  without 
nature.  This  was  the  original  conception  of  the 
human  mind  in  its  infancy.  Hut  a  knowledi^ 
the  methods  of  nature  has  displaced  this  funda- 
mental idea  and  has  seemed  to  prove  that  tli 
lute  works  by  a  method,  which  method  we  know  as 
nature.  An  old  conception  of  nature  was  that  no 
phenomenon  occurred  that  was  not  a  special  order 
of  supernatural  power  ;  but  admitting  this,  we  are 
also  obliged  to  admit  that  nature  is  governed  by 
law  or  by  uniformity  of  action.  I  do  not  deny  any 
tenet  of  supernaturalism  nor  any  one  of  the  doc- 
trines of  any  of  tin-  ten  great  religions.  The 
point  I  wish  to  bring  out  clearly  is  that  no  mani- 
festation of  mind  can  be  understood  or  explained 
except  in  terms  of  science  ;  any  which  we  can  be 
cognizant  of  that  cannot  be  explained  in  these 
terms  is  not  known  to  be  a  revelation  of  the  action 


THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

of  mind.  It  is  true,  also,  that  many  mental  mani- 
festations, notably  mind  reading  and  hypnotism,  so 
far  as  these  things  are  not  mistakes  or  fraudulent 
pretensions,  are  explicable  in  terms  of  science  and 
are  in  accordance  with  the  known  laws  of  nature. 

People  communicate  with  each  other  mentally, 
by  language  or  its  equivalent.  Yet  there  is  no  end 
of  literature  which  endeavors  to  prove  that  all  man- 
ner of  communication  between  individuals,  even 
through  great  distances,  has  been  effected  by  some 
unknown  and  mysterious  method.  There  is  no 
proof  of  any  such  mental  action.  If  such  were 
possible,  cases  enough  have  been  reported  to  reveal 
the  physical  law  of  force  or  nature  which  underlies 
such  action.  It  is  now  acknowledged  that  the  lead- 
ing modern  spiritualistic  phenomena  of  history  were 
all  deceptions.  In  all  scientific  questions  the  moral 
factor  has  great  importance.  Truthfulness  and 
accuracy  are  very  essential  factors  in  the  observa- 
tion of  all  phenomena. 

Premonitions  are  next  in  importance  to  super- 
natural long  distance  mental  communications.  With 
many  persons  it  is  a  habit  to  have  them.  Imagina- 
tion is  unlimited  through  the  space  of  human  expe- 
rience. An  unoccupied  mind  will  employ  itself  in 
revery,  which  consists  of  calling  upon  past  experi- 
ences and  applying  them  to  the  future.  It  would 
be  strange  indeed  if  some  vain  imaginings  did  not 
include  possible  future  occurrences.  It  is  the  habit 
of  some  people  to  indulge  these  imaginings  as  to 
every  possible  condition  of  their  future ;  then  if  any 


THE    MINI)    IN'    HEALTH    AND    DISEASE.         89 

calamity  occurs  they  will  claim  that  their  imagina- 
tion of  it  was  a  premonition.  So  few  of  these 
premonitions  come  to  pass  that  no  law  of  mental 
action  can  be  made  of  them.  But  if  this  were  a 
law,  what  calamities  might  be  averted.  If  it  were  so, 
no  calamity  in  fact  could  occur.  All  people  would 
be  forewarned  and  forearmed. 

Belief  is  the  harlequin  of  the  mind.  It  is  no 
possible  criterion  of  truth,  because  belief  in  error 
or  fact,  depends  on  corresponding  information,  or 
evidence,  or  education.  Besides  this,  prejudice  and 
self-interest  are  the  old  masters  which  alwax  s  g 
color  to  belief.  Belief  is  an  index  showing  not 
only  a  person's  mental  development  and  training, 
education  and  culture,  but  also  the  whole  hereditarv 
history  of  the  individual  relating  to  mental  develop- 
ment. Belief  indicates  opinion.  As  a  rule  any  per- 
son believes  in  his  own  opinion,  but  all  people  arc- 
in  intellectual  error  who  regard  their  belief  alon< 
any  sufficient  or -correct  guide  to  intellectual  or  moral 
conduct.  The  only  verification  of  truth  or  fact  in 
relation  to  the  human  mind  is  demonstrative,  mathe- 
matical, or  experimental  proof. 

No  mental  faculty  has  hindered  mental  and  social 
progress  as  belief  has  done.  The  tendency  of  the 
human  mind  is  to  have  beliefs  firmly  fixed  in  the 
mind.  As  a  result  old  beliefs  are  like  hereditarv 
diseases.  They  become  a  part  of  the  brain  and 
arc-  transmitted  by  heredity.  It  is  therefore  impos- 
sible for  many  people  to  change  their  belief.  In 
fact  there  is  a  noticeable  pride  with  the  general- 


9«          THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

ity  of  mankind  in  maintaining  their  beliefs  in  spite 
of  new  information  and  evidence.  It  is  not  consid- 
ered quite  honorable  to  change  belief  in  politics, 
religion,  morals,  or  medicine,  or  in  any  creed  what- 
ever of  faith  or  science.  It  is  a  sign  of  a  healthy 
and  well  acting  brain,  body,  and  mind  if  belief 
adapts  itself  to  every  new  verified  fact  that  the  mind 
may  acquire.  Belief  formulates  creeds  in  science 
and  supernaturalism,  and  nourishes  and  maintains 
them.  Belief  and  creed  are  like  an  iron  railing, 
inclosing  human  thought  and  human  conduct,  which 
is  unyielding  and  unchanging  until  it  rusts  away; 
but  human  conduct  and  belief  should  depend, 
instead,  upon  information  and  positive  facts ;  it 
should  be  as  flexible  and  changeable  as  is  human 
belief  and  conduct  in  business,  when  the  informa- 
tion is  derived  from  the  machine  which  writes  infor- 
mation on  a  tape  indicator. 

A  modern  school  of  pseudo-science  has  arisen 
whose  doctrinal  theory  is  that  a  belief,  even  an 
affected  belief,  relating  to  any  phenomenon  of  the 
body,  or  of  external  origin,  will  determine  its  truth 
and  correctness.  In  fact  this  intangible  and  in- 
comprehensible theory  asserts  it  is  sufficient  to 
cure  a  disease,  if  its  existence  is  denied  or  not 
believed  in,  and,  even,  that  all  external  and  internal 
phenomena  depend  for  their  actuality  upon  human 
belief. 

Such  is  the  logical  outcome  of  the  culture  and 
inheritance  of  unchanging  belief,  despite  the  verifi- 
cations of  science  or  the  non-conformance  of  the 


THK    MIND    IN    HKALTH    AND    DISEASE.         9r 

belief  to   the   intellect  in  all  relations  of  matter  and 
mind. 

The  human  mind  has  fathomed  the  universe 
scientifically  and  determined  its  own  limits  of 
understanding-  and  comprehension.  Acting  through 
natural  and  understood  laws  and  natural  methods  it 
has  made  the  desert  and  wild  surface  of  the  world  a 
paradise  of  human  civilization.  This  work  was  not 
clone  by  hypnotism,  magic,  belief,  or  by  any  other 
supernatural  or  superscientific  method  ;  it  was  done 
by  human  mind  acting  through  nerves  and  mu>< 
and  performing  work. 

The  influence  of  the  mind  over  the  body  in 
health  and  disease  can  now  be  understood,  as  we 
have  derived  the  general  principle  of  mental  action 
from  the  instances  given  of  the  methods  and 
influence  of  the  mind  upon  external  objects  and 
phenomena.  \Ye  know  of  no  supernatural  action  of 
mind.  There  is  no  phenomenon  of  mental  action 
upon  the  organs  of  physiology  which  cannot  be 
explained  in  terms  of  natural  science  ;  so  we  will 
find  that  alleged  supernatural  mental  activities  and 
results  are  either  deceptions  or  delusions  of  the 
intellect  by  a  dominant  belief. 

The  mind  has  connection  with  the  body  through 
the  medium  of  the  nerves.  It  acts  upon  the  bodv 
bv  no  other  method,  by  nerves  and  psycho-motor 
force.  We  understand  the  general  character  of  the 
nervous  action  to  be  sensory,  motor,  and  trophic  or 
nutritive.  The  nerves  of  special  sense  are  sensory 
nerves,  which  convey  special  kinds  of  sensation  to 


92  THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

the  brain,  where  it  is  interpreted  in  a  special  manner 
or  as  a  specialized  form  of  sensation.  We  know 
very  well  that  the  mind  directing  the  body  at  work 
uses  sensory  and  motor  nerves.  The  mind  receives 
information  through  the  nerves  of  general  and 
special  sensation  and  acts  through  the  nerves  of 
motion.  The  mind,  also,  without  doubt,  has  more  or 
less  influence  over  the  functions  of  the  trophic 
nerves.  This  is  the  outline  of  the  influence  of  the 
mind  over  the  body  in  health. 

So  far  as  the  mind  is  concerned  we  may  classify 
all  diseases  as  those  which  are  caused  by  the  mind 
and  those  having  other  causes.  A  healthy  mind 
never  produces  a  disease.  A  diseased  mind  may 
produce  bodily  disease  to  a  limited  extent,  directly. 
A  diseased  mind  may  also  cause  bodily  disease  in- 
directly through  self  poisoning,  flagellation,  starva- 
tion, and  suicide  even. 

In  direct  action  the  mind  may  cause  loss  of  mo- 
tion, or  local  or  general  paralysis.  It  may  cause 
loss  of  sensation,  general  or  local.  It  may  possibly, 
acting  through  the  trophic  nerves,  cause  local  or 
general  emaciation,  or  atrophy,  or  hypertrophy. 

Further  than  this  the  mind  can  cause  no  disease, 
directly  ;  indirectly  there  is  no  question  that  the 
mind  may,  to  a  small  or  limited  extent,  weaken 
the  acquired  resistance  of  the  body  to  the  action 
of  germ  poisons.  During  the  progress  of  any 
disease  the  mind  may,  through  the  influence  of  the 
motor  or  sensory  nerves,  weaken  the  power  of 
digestion  and  assimilation  of  food,  and  be  a  factor 


THE    MIND   IN   HEALTH   AND    DISEASE.         93 

of  great  injury  in  the  prevention  of  the  recovery  of 
the  patient. 

Further  than  this  the  diseases  caused  by  the  mincl 
are  instances  of  self  deception,  or  matters  that  exist 
only  in  belief.  The  diseased  mind  refuses,  or  is  un- 
able, to  dismiss  belief  in  the  existence  of  disease. 
Belief  may  dominate  the  mind  in  this  relation  just 
as  it  may  in  any  other  relation.  If  a  man  believes 
he  has  heart  disease  of  valvular  origin,  he  will  con- 
duct himself  accordingly  so  long  as  he  believes  it. 
But  his  mind  cannot  cause  the  heart  disease.  A 
man  may  believe  that  his  right  hand  is  mad* 
glass  and  will  guard  that  member  accordingly,  for 
fear  of  breaking  it.  To  him  his  hand  is  glass  ;  but 
his  hand  is  flesh  and  bone,  in  fact.  He  is  deceived 
by  his  mental  harlequin — belief. 

As  will  be  seen  the  greater  number  of  dis. 
caused  by  the  mind  are  imaginary  diseases.  In  fact, 
strictly  analyzed,  all  of  them  are.  The  man  who 
believes  his  hand  is  glass  does  not  move  it,  and  no 
doubt  the  sensation  of  his  hand  to  him  is  like  glass. 
This  is  the  influence  of  the  mind  over  the  sensorv 
and  motor  nerves. 

People  who  have  these  imaginary  diseases  will, 
unconsciously  perhaps,  imitate  all  the  symptoms  of 
the  disease  with  which  they  are  acquainted,  If  a 
person  believes  he  has  consumption  he  will  cough  ; 
if  he  believes  he  has  paralysis  he  will  not  walk,  or 
will  go  lame  ;  if  he  believes  he  has  lost  his  voice  he 
will  whisper.  Yet  the  existence  of  these  symptoms 
will  not  produce  the  actual  disease-  ;  they  will  pro- 


94          THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

duce  an  imitation  of  the  disease.  But  the  general 
public  takes  very  little  interest  in  the  relation  of 
mind  to  disease  ;  the  reason  being  that  the  public 
interest  is  so  great  in  the  relation  of  mind  to  cure. 
The  influence  of  the  mind  in  curing  disease  is  lim- 
ited to  its  influence  in 'causing  disease.  It  can  cure 
no  real  malady,  but  it  can  cure  the  imaginary  dis- 
ease. Any  disorder  of  the  mind  or  body  which  can 
be  caused  by  a  belief  can  be  cured  by  a  change  of 
belief.  It  is  true  that  mental  influence  is  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  the  cure  of  disease,  for  the  reason  that 
a  belief  in  recovery  tends  to  stimulate  the  sensory 
and  motor  nerves,  holds  up  the  powers  of  digestion 
and  assimilation,  and  maintains  the  action  of  the 
heart.  Belief  can  cause  death  during  the  progress 
of  any  disease,  or,  even,  without  disease,  by  bring- 
ing about  heart  failure.  Belief  can  do  a  great  deal 
to  prevent  heart  failure  during  the  progress  of 
disease. 

There  is  no  more  dangerous  faculty  of  mind  than 
a  stubborn  belief,  in  an  ignorant  or,  even,  an 
educated  mind.  In  such  a  condition  the  patient's 
life  may  be  unnecessarily  lost.  It  is  this  stubborn, 
ignorant  belief  which  directly  has  slain  thousands 
and  millions  for  opinion's  sake.  The  faggot  fires  of 
history  illuminate  a  hideous  spectre — the  ignorant 
belief  of  superstition.  The  errors  of  science,  the 
mistakes  of  medicine,  the  dogmas  of  faith,  the  slow 
development  of  the  cure  of  diseases,  the  persecution 
of  the  insane,  and  the  present  punishment  of  in- 
ebriety as  a  vice  instead  of  its  recognition  as  a  dis- 


THE   MIXI)   IX    HEALTH    AM)    DISEASE.         95 

case  meriting  a  proper  treatment   arc  the   results   of 
ignorant  belief. 

The  diseases  of  the  second  class,  or  which  are 
not  the  result  of  mental  influence,  are  those  caused 
bv  microbes,  by  poisoning,  and  by  mechanical 
accidental  violence  to  the  tissues  of  the  bodv. 
To  illustrate  clearly  the  curative  power  of  the  mind 
in  these  diseases  I  will  take  up,  first,  the  injuries. 
However  great  maybe  any  person's  belief  in  the 
curative  properties  of  the  mind  in  germ  disease's 
and  in  diseases  caused  by  poisons,  this  beli 
not  seem  to  include  the  cure  of  broken  bones. 
Chronic  lameness  from  some  obscure  disease,  how- 
ever, comes  within  the  scope  of  faith.  It  some-times 
occurs  that  crutches  are  carried  longer  than  ne 
sarv  after  an  injury,  from  habit,  or  a  belief  that  they 
cannot  be  dispensed  with.  In  such  cases  some  pre- 
scription of  faith  may  change  the  belief  and  the 
crutches  will  be  thrown  away.  The  belief  caused 
the  disease  and  a  change  of  belief  causes  the  cure. 
But  belief  does  not  always  succeed.  People  who 
have  real  diseases  and  deformities  and  use  crutches, 
sec-ing  this  evidence  of  mental  cure,  will  try  it. 
Their  belief  being  already  fixed  when  they  comply 
with  the  simple  requirement  of  mental  cure,  they 
will  throw  away  their  crutches  and  rejoice  with  the 
others  ;  they  will  declare  themselves  cured,  leap  for 
joy,  and  walk  without  aid.  But  in  such  cases  the 
cure  is  apparent,  not  real.  The  ability  to  walk  with- 
out crutches  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  mind,  directed 
by  belief,  has  benumbed  the  nerves  of  sensation  of 


96          THE    NON-HEREDITY    OF  INEBRIETY. 

the  diseased  part  ;  the  patient  for  a  time  walks 
without  pain,  but  eventually  resumes  his  crutches. 

The  influence  of  the  mind  in  all  germ  diseases, 
as  cancer,  consumption,  typhoid,  the  diseases  of 
childhood,  and,  in  fact,  all  others  of  this  character, 
is  limited  to  the  effects  I  have  stated.  Mental  bias 
is  a  great  help  in  aiding  the  physiological  forces 
during  the  progress  of  disease.  It  makes  no  differ- 
ence from  what  source  the  belief  is  derived,  whether 
faith  in  sarsaparilla,  an  Indian  doctor,  the  prayer  of 
faith,  or  a  candid  acknowledgment  that  belief  alone 
destroys  disease,  the  effect  will  be  the  same.  Hope, 
faith,  belief,  will  stimulate  the  vital  functions  and 
help  to  resist  the  disease.  In  diseases  which  termi- 
nate after  a  certain  duration  of  time  any  influence 
whatever  which  stimulates  the  vital  forces  is  a  very 
useful  adjunct  to  the  treatment.  It  is  true  that  the 
physician  endeavors  to  secure  the  confidence  of  his 
patient.  He  knows  by  so  doing  his  remedies  will 
have  a  powerful  helper  in  the  belief  of  the  patient. 

But  diseases  which  terminate  fatally  are  treated 
by  belief  and  always  with  the  result  of  verifying 
these  limited  results  of  mental  action.  In  obscure 
diseases,  as  hidden  cancers,  consumption,  and  other 
infectious  diseases  of  internal  organs  the  pain  may 
be  the  only  symptom  known  to  the  patient  except 
resulting  weakness.  If  a  belief  in  a  cure  in  such 
cases  is  established  the  pain  will  cease,  because  the 
mind,  influenced  by  dominant  belief,  will  refuse  to 
recognize  the  message  of  the  sensory  nerves.  As  a 
result  the  patient  declares  himself  cured,  and  will 


THE    MINI.)    IN    HEALTH    AND    DISEASE.         97 

endeavor  to  act  as  long"  as  possible  in  accordance 
with  his  belief,  although  the  disease  is  not  influenced 
in  the  least. 

Inebriety  is  a  disease  belonging  to  the  classifica- 
tion I  have  given  under  the  head  of  poisons.  Xo 
hereditary,  or  other  disease,  or  mental  influence  can 
produce  this  disease  directly.  It  can  only  be  caused 
by  a  poison.  Any  reason  in  the  world  may  lead  a 
man  to  drink,  but  nothing  other  than  alcohol  can 
cause  inebriety. 

Until  within  a  few  years  no  treatment  except 
mind  cure  has  ever  been  tried  for  inebriety. 
Those  who  regarded  inebriety  as  a  sin  prescribed 
religion  ;  those:  esteeming  it  a  soeial  vice  have 
enjoined  pledge  signing  ;  those  who  consider  it  a 
crime  pronounce  the  sentence  of  fine  or  impris- 
onment. All  of  these  methods  have  had  more 
or  less  success.  The  inebriate  may  refrain  from 
drinking  because  he  fears  punishment,  or  bebV 
some  mental  influence  has  cured  him,  or  be- 
cause his  pledge  stimulates  his  will  to  abstain  ; 
but  none  of  these  things  can  cure  the  disease.  The 
mental  influences  simply  dull  the  sensation  of  crav- 
ing for  liquor,  which  is  the  symptom  of  the  disc 
The  disease  remains  the  same,  and  when  the  men- 
tal influence,  from  any  cause,  grows  less  powerful 
the  disease  will  again  assert  itself.  The  only  cure 
for  inebriety  is  medical  treatment. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SEROTHERAPY,     AND      NATURAL     SELECTION     IN 
RELATION    TO    IMMUNITY    FROM    DISEASE. 

THE  most  interesting  social  problem  is  the  pre- 
vention of  disease.  In  fact  there  is  no  social 
(jucstion  of  greater  importance.  All  matters  that 
relate  to  earning  a  living  are  of  secondary  interest 
to  that  of  early  death  by  disease.  The  average 
duration  of  human  life  underlies  social  progress,  the 
present  civilization,  and  the  hope  of  a  greater. 
There  is  no  force  of  higher  influence  underlying  a 
long  average  duration  of  human  life  than  the  agent 
of  mycotic  disease  or  its  poison.  Poison  is  truly 
the  bane  of  human  existence  ;  it  underlies  moral 
evil  ;  it  is  the  real  foundation  of  poverty  ;  it  is  the 
well-spring  of  human  sorrow  ;  it  is  the  agent  of 
early  death.  A  force  which  underlies  these  social 
phenomena  is  not  exceeded  in  importance  by  any 
other  known  evil,  and,  therefore,  there  is  not  a  more 
interesting  problem  to  the  human  soul  and  mind 
than  the  question  of  the  prevention  of  poisoning,  or 
the  prevention  of  disease. 

Out  of  the  fact  that  one  attack  of  a  disease  gives 
immunity  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period  from  at- 
tacks of  the  same  disease  has  grown  the  practice  of 
inoculation  for  the  prevention  of  disease.  Vaccina- 

98 


SEROTHERAPY  IN   RELATION  TO  DISEASE. 

tion  for  the  prevention  of  smallpox  is  a  method  of 
inoculation.  The  general  principle  involved  in  this 

plan  of  acquiring  ;m  immunity  is  that  a  mild  attack 
of  a  disease  will  give  a  corresponding  protection 
from  the  disease,  and  inoculation  causes  a  mild  at- 
tack of  any  disease  so  caused.  The  "virus"  used 
in  all  inoculation  is  a  modified  type  of  the  microbe 
causing  the  disease;  the  modification  consists  in  the 
fact  that  the  virus  is  a  microbe  having  less  power 
of  manufacturing  the  characteristic  poison  than  the 
original  disease  germ. 

The  cause  of  disease  is  a  very  simple  affair,  now 
that  it  is  fully  understood.  The  occult  feature, 
much  of  the  mystery,  and  a  great  part  of  the  dignity 
of  medicine  and  medical  practice  have  always  de- 
pended upon  the  unknown  factors  of  disease  and 
the  empiricism  of  cure.  To  know  that  poison  is  the 
cause  of  disease  and  that  the  action  of  poison  is  bv 
chemical  force  acting  upon  the  tissue  cells,  causing 
increased  cell  activity,  perverted  cell  activity,  and 
paralysis  of  cell  action,  as  well  as  variation  in  the 
type  of  the  cells,  is  to  simplify  the  nature 
disease  and  bring  the  subject  within  the  domain  of 
science. 

Both  inference  and  observation  verify  the  doc- 
trine of  the  germ  theory.  The  logic  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  disease  is  also  a  proof.  That  the  cause 
of  disease  multiplies  itself  in  the  body  of  a  diseased 
person  is  a  fact  long  verified  ;  this  phenomenon  can 
be  explained  upon  no  other  hypothesis  than  that 
of  the  germ  origin  of  disease'.  The  discovery  ot 


ioo        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

the  bacteria  and  their  classification,  the  demonstra- 
tion of  their  power  in  the  manufacture  of  poisons, 
and  the  verification  that  these  poisons  can  cause 
disease  complete  the  logical,  demonstrative,  and 
experimental  proof  of  the  cause  and  the  nature  of 
disease. 

The  germ  of  disease,  the  microbe,  enters  the 
system  through  air,  food,  by  contact,  or  through  a 
wound.  The  law  governing  the  various  species, 
which  represent  so  many  species  of  disease,  appears 
to  be  that  under  equal  exposure  all  persons  are 
liable  to  disease  inversely  as  their  acquired  force 
of  resistance. 

The  force  of  resistance,  or  the  degree  of  immu- 
nity and  its  nature,  requires  explanation.  It  is  a 
matter  of  common  observation  that  in  an  epidemic 
not  all  people,  under  the  same  exposure,  will  be 
equally  diseased,  and  many  escape  altogether.  An- 
other fact  of  observation  is  that  one  attack  of  a  dis- 
ease, or  an  inoculation  of  its  modified  type,  gives 
immunity,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period,  to  the 
same  disease. 

The  meaning  of  immunity  in  any  degree  from 
any  disease  means  that  the  tissue  cells  have  acquired 
and  hold  the  power  of  resisting  the  poison  of  dis- 
ease. This  immunity  can  be  acquired  in  no  other 
manner  or  method  by  the  cells  except  through 
being  subjected  to  the  action  of  the  poison.  The 
resistance  of  the  cell  to  the  action  of  the  poison 
creates  a  variation  in  the  type  of  the  cell,  which 
variation  is  characterized  by  an  increased  power  of 


SEROTHERAPY   IN   RELATION  TO   DISEASE.     101 

resisting  the  poison,  or  of  resisting-  a  greater  amount 
ot"  any  given  poison. 

Observation    teaches    us    that   the    more    ot"    any 
given  poison   a   person    may  take    the   more   he   can 
tolerate,    within    certain    limits.       The    habitue- 
.alcohol,    opium,  chloral,   arsenic,  and    all    other  poi- 
sons used  in  this  manner  confirm  this  fact. 

Immunity  from  disease  is  made  up  of  the  follow- 
ing factors:  The  virulence  ot  the  microbe,  its 
invasive  power,  or  its  poisoning  power.  The  power 
acquired  bv  the  tissue  cells  of  tolerating  or  resist- 
ing the  poison  of  the  microbe  exceeds  the  microbe's 
power  of  invasion.  For  this  reason  the  inciv 
resistance  of  the  tissue  cells  and  their  nuclei  is  suf- 
ficient to  prevent  the  disease  or  the  invasion  of  the 
microbe. 

This  is  apparently  and   logically   the    philosophy 
of   immunity  from    disease   acquired   bv  the   pr<  > 
of   nature  and  under  the  law   of   the    relation  of  poi- 
sons  to  life,  disease,  and  death.      The  methods  em- 
ployed by  sanitation  are   inoculation  of  the  germ  or 
its  poison — an  imitation  of  the  method  of   natur 
destruction  of  the  germ,  or   prevention  of   its   trans- 
portation through  air  and  water  ;  and  other  methods 
which  interfere  with  the  multiplication  and  diffusion 
of  the  virulent  bacteria. 

Serotherapy  is  a  new  term  used  to  explain  a  new 
variety  of  inoculation  designed  to  prevent  disease 
bv  causing  an  immunity.  The  method  of  using 
serum  in  this  manner  is  to  take  the  blood  of  an  ani- 
mal .during  a  disease  or  following  a  disease,  and, 


102        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

letting  the  serum  of  the  blood  separat'e  under  anti- 
septic precautions,  inoculate  the  serum  into  the 
blood  of  another  animal. 

It  is  learned  during  these  experiments  that  other 
tissues  and  fluids  of  the  body  have  this  immune 
property,  as  it  is  called.  The  saliva  exerts  a  great 
resistance  to  the  invasive  power  of  many  diseases. 
It  was  learned  by  an  experimenter  in  this  field,  who 
was  making  cultures  of  the  microbe  of  influenza  or 
la  grippe  (which  microbe  can  be  cultured  only  in  a 
culture  fluid  containing  blood),  that  the  blood  of 
this  culture  fluid,  or  the  serum  of  the  blood,  would 
prevent  the  invasive  power  of  the  germ,  and  would, 
when  inoculated  in  the  blood  of  an  animal  having 
the  disease,  also  cure  the  disease.  The  serum  of 
the  blood  of  patients  who  have  had  cholera,  if 
injected  into  the  blood  of  guinea  pigs,  will  protect 
them  from  cholera.  In  diphtheria  and  tetanus  the 
serum  of  the  blood  of  persons  so  diseased  will  pro- 
tect, and  even  cure,  these  diseases  in  animals.  In 
fact  experiments  prove  that  this  law  of  serotherapy 
holds  good  in  tetanus,  diphtheria,  anthrax,  cholera, 
typhoid  fever,  and  influenza.  There  is  no  question 
that  it  will  hold  good  in  all  germ  diseases  in  which 
the  tissues  can  acquire  a  tolerance  to  the  poison  of 
the  disease  and  that  in  the  future  such  is  to  be  the 
treatment  for  all  such  diseases,  including  surgical 
infections,  the  diseases  of  the  lying-in  chamber,  and 
the  diseases  of  childhood. 

The  fact  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  isolated 
cultures  of  the  microbe  containing  ptomaine  poisons, 


SEROTHERAPY  IX   RELATION  TO  DISKASK.     103 

as  well  as  the  isolated  poisons  themselves,  are  capa- 
ble of  causing1  an  immunity  from  disease.  From 
the  known  laws  of  poisoning  there  can  be  no  reason 
to  doubt  the  proposition  that  it  is  the  poison  of  the 
gvrm  alone,  whether  in  culture  fluid  or  blood 
serum,  which  has  the  power  of  causing  the  immu- 
nity. 

Various  writers  on  the  subject  of  serotherapy  have 
presented  various  theories  to  account  for  the  im- 
mune power  of  the  animal  fluids  which  have  been 
subjected  to  disease. 

These  suggestions  are  that  the  serum  or  fluids 
must  act  in  one  of  four  wavs:  (  I  )  thev  mav  pos- 
sess a  bactericidal  propcrtv  which  enables  them  to 
destroy  the  offending  germs  ;  (  2}  thev  mav  have  an 
attenuating  effect  upon  the  germ  which  merely 
lessens  its  virulence  ;  f  }  )  thev  may  act  directly  upon 
the  toxines  which  are  secreted  by  the  germs  and 
neutralize  their  effects  ;  (  4  )  they  may  exert  a  sort 
of  catabolic  action  upon  the  liquids  or  solids  ( tis- 
sues) of  the  organism,  which  enables  them  to  repel 
the  invasion  of  the  disease  germ. 

The  latter  suggestion,  in  part,  is  probably  near 
the  truth  of  the  matter  —  that  the  immune  fluids 
enable  the  tissues  to  repel  the  invasion  of  the  dis- 
ease causing  microbe.  But  there  is  no  need  of 
shading  the  subject  in  further  darkness  by  suggest- 
ing that  this  is  the  effect  of  a  catabolic  action  ex- 
erted by  the  fluids  over  the  tissues.  The  so-called 
immune  fluids  are  not  "immune"  in  any  sense,  for 
the  reason  that  they  arc  dead  tissues,  and  immunity 


104        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

from  disease  is  a  property  of  life.  The  secret  of 
the  whole  subject  is  that  the  poison  of  the  disease 
microbe  is  contained  in  the  blood  and  has  power  of 
causing  immunity.  I  do  not  know  that  this  fact 
has  been  proved,  but  I  submit  that  this  hypothesis 
is  the  only  one  possible  to  suggest  which  can  fully 
explain  all  the  factors  of  the  problem. 

A  living  tissue  can  exert  over  dead  organic  mat- 
ter a  catalytic  action,  as  in  the  digestion  of  foods, 
where  living  tissues  secrete  a  digestive  fluid;  but  the 
only  manner  in  which  an  organic  fluid,  by  the  force 
of  chemical  action,  can  cause  immunity  of  living  tis- 
sues from  disease  is  by  containing  and  using  the 
poison  which  causes  the  disease.  The  law  of  immu- 
nity is  that  an  attack  of  a  disease,  through  its  poi- 
son, gives  immunity  from  disease.  We  do  not 
know  of  any  other  cause  which  gives  immunity;  and 
the  various  forms  of  disease,  or  rather  the  various 
methods  and  types  of  the  cause,  whether  as  virus, 
serum,  culture  fluid,  or  the  microbe  itself,  all 
are  simply  conditions  which  include  the  same  pto- 
maine, differing  only  in  quantity.  There  is  a  ten- 
dency in  the  medical  mind  to  ascribe  immunity  to  a 
few  only  of  the  tissues  of  the  body,  and  some  ex- 
perimenters, as  Metschnikoff,  think  that  the  invasive 
power  of  the  microbe  is  met  by  the  repelling  power 
of  a  single  animal  tissue  or  factor — the  phagocytes. 
Metschnikoff  thinks* that  the  phagocytes  meet  the 
invasive  microbes  and  defeat  them  in  battle.  These 
organisms  of  Metschnikoff  are,  of  course,  the  re- 
sults and  creations  of  one  attack  of  disease,  as  they 


SEROTHERAPY   IN   RELATION  TO  DISEASE.     105 

do  not  appear  to  exist  or  at  least  are  not  active  until 
after  an  attack.  This  being  true  it  follows  that 
these  organisms  are  the  creations  of  poisoning  and 
therefore  they  are  cells  or  organisms  which,  by  the 
chemical  force  of  poisoning,  have  acquired  the 
power  of  doing  successful  battle  with  the  microbe. 
But  this  theory  will  not  hold  good  in  relation  to  the 
general  law  of  poisoning.  In  alcohol,  opium, 
arsenic,  and  other  poisoning  the  same  immunitv  is 
created.  This  tolerance  of  the  tissues  to  these 
drugs  is  certainly  not  due  to  an  organism  which 
acquires  the  power  of  resisting  the  germ  of  disease, 
for  in  such  poisoning  and  resulting  disease  and  im- 
munity there  is  no  microbe'. 

But  it  having  been  proved  that  AletschnikotTs 
organisms  are  created  by  disease,  and  the  evidence 
being  clear  how  this  is  done,  it  then  becomes  ne< 
sarv  to  prove  ;vhy  a  general  poisoning  of  an  organ- 
ism docs  not  directly  Lfive  other  tissues  than  ph;- 
cytes  an  immunity.  If  the  phagucvtes  themselves 
are  capable  of  destroying  the  germ  of  disease,  thus 
protecting  the  rest  of  the  organism  against  dise 
invasion,  then  the  phagocytes  are  themselves  im- 
mune and  acquired  this  faculty  by  poisoning.  It 
seems  clear  that  any  tissue  cell  of  an  organism  can 
acquire  this  property  of  immunity,  and  that  all  tis- 
sues do,  under  like  conditions.  If  this  is  not  true, 
then  it  is  not  true  in  biology  that  all  organisms  are 
subject  to  variation  of  type  under  changes  of  environ- 
ment, relating  to  use  and  disuse;  and  it  is  then  also  not 
true  thai  an  immunity  is  created  in  the  case  of  poi- 


106        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

soiling  by  organic  and  mineral  poisons.  In  the  lat- 
ter variety  of  poisoning  is  meant,  of  course,  that  an 
immunity  is  created  by  the  habitual  use  of  these 
drugs  to  the  average  fatal  close  of  the  drug. 

It  may  be  shown  perhaps  by  actual  observation 
with  the  microscope  that  phagocytes  are  immune 
in  certain  definite  relations.  No  doubt  this  fact  has 
been  shown  and  is  a  fact.  But  the  deduction  from 
this  fact  that  the  phagocytes  are  therefore  the  sole 
agents  of  general  immunity  is  not  verified  until  it 
is  demonstrated  that  no  other  tissue  of  the  same 
organism  has  immunity.  Clearly  this  has  not  been 
done ;  therefore  the  biological  truth  that  all  organ- 
isms have  the  resources  of  variation,  and  the  gen- 
eral law  of  poisons  that  all  poisoning  creates  an 
immunity,  under  like  conditions,  are  as  yet  undis- 
turbed, remaining  as  general  laws  of  life,  of  disease, 
and  of  immunity  from  disease. 

It  follows  that  no  discovery  seems  to  invalidate 
the  great  general  law  of  natural  selection  in  its 
relation  to  the  prevention  of  disease  by  the  organic 
laws  of  nature,  or  by  an  intelligent  adaptation  and 
administration  of  these  laws  in  practice.  The  first 
of  these  laws  about  which  I  wish  to  speak  in  this 
relation  is  variation. 

The  law  of  organisms,  which  are  alive  and  obtain 
their  own  living,  is  that  change  of  condition  or 
environment,  in  relation  to  mental  and  bodily  activ- 
ities, necessitates  a  change  in  the  type  of  the  organ- 
ism. The  immediate  cause  of  the  change  of  type 
is  use  and  disuse,  as  relates  to  the  structure  and  the 


SEROTHERAPY  IN   RELATION  TO  DISEASE.     107 

physiology  of  the  organism.  The  rule  is  that  all 
organisms  have  the  resources  of  variation  subject  to 
these  conditions  and  to  changes  of  condition.  A 
change  of  climate,  a  change  of  environment  relating 
to  food  supply  and  to  personal  enemies  always 
requires  a  new  adaptation  of  the  organism.  This 
necessitates  a  change  of  type,  or  a  variation  relating 
to  structure  and  activities.  Under  the  law  of  poi- 
sons, when  an  organism  is  subjected  to  the  action 
of  a  drug  or  ptomaine  there  is  a  change  of  condi- 
tions which  must  be  met.  The  organism  must 
either  be  destroyed  or  it  must  tolerate  the  poison. 
\Ve  know  very  well  what  are  the  results  of  the  habit- 
ual use  of  poisons.  These  results  are  the  increased 
tolerance  of  the  tissues  poisoned  to  the  action  of 
the  poison  and  the  establishment  of  a  craving  for 
the  poison.  In  disease  the  result  is  an  increased 
tolerance  to  the  poison,  which  is  the  basis  of  an 
immunity  to  the  disease,  because  it  is  sufficient  to 
overcome  the  invasive  power  of  the  microbe. 

The  next  factor  of  natural  selection  is  heredity. 
The  variations  of  organisms,  in  the  history  of 
plants  and  animals,  have  created  the  useful  and 
beautiful  forms  of  existence  and  have  written  the 
history  of  life.  Heredity  has  made  humanity  and 
written  the  history  of  civilization  and  ethical  devel- 
opment. 

The  variation   of  type  which   waits   upon   ii1- 
labor  and  adaptation  —  upon  thoughtfulness,   inven- 
tion,   genius,    and  ambition  — -  has  created  the  cities, 
the    nations,  the   governments,    and    the    institutions 


io8        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

of  civilized  life.  It  has  saved  humanity  from  ex- 
tinction by  disease.  It  has,  through  the  force  of 
heredity,  transmitted  the  qualities  and  the  structures 
that  use  has  made,  and  has  adapted  the  race  to 
climate,  to  work,  to  the  soil,  the  air,  the  seasons, 
and  made  man  the  conqueror  and  owner  of  the  earth. 

Heredity  is  selective  in  its  work.  It  transmits 
no  deformities  of  accident  or  misfortune.  It  does 
not  transmit  disease.  Heredity  transmits  the  varia- 
tions which  adaptation  and  education  have  created. 
If  there  is  no  new  variation  to  transmit,  then  hered- 
ity transmits  the  primitive  type  ;  sometimes  going 
back  through  generations  for  an  ancient  form  of 
figure  or  mental  type.  The  rule  of  heredity  is  to 
leave  out  the  vicious  and  the  deformed  structures 
and  to  transmit  the  improved  features  in  the  organic 
types. 

It  is  clear  enough  that  an  immunity  to  disease, 
being  a  product  of  organic  structure,  which  is 
developed  by  the  forces  of  adaptation,  must  be  in 
part  hereditary.  It  is  also  clear  that  any  deformity 
of  structure  of  any  factor  of  the  anatomy  of  an 
organism  cannot  be  transmitted.  If  disease  were 
hereditary,  humanity  would  be  a  monstrosity.  Nature 
transmits  whatever  tolerance  to  disease  there  may 
be,  but  if  this  tolerance  is  not  sufficient  to  prevent 
the  invasion  of  the  germ  of  disease,  then  the  pro- 
geny must  be  liable  to  the  causes  of  disease. 

Nature  is  slow  in  great  things  and  an  under- 
standing of  her  methods  will  give  the  reason  for  it. 
If  it  is  a  law  that  a  change  of  condition  must  result 


SEROTHERAPY  IX  RELATION  TO  DISEASE.     109 

in  a  variation  of  organic  structure  by  adaptation, 
then  we  must  appreciate  that  when  disease  is  ended, 
even  though  an  immunity  is  gained,  there  is  a 
change  to  new  conditions,  and  a  corresponding 
change  of  type  of  the  organism  must  follow.  This 
change  is  backward  to  the  conditions  which  obtained 
before  the  disease  occurred.  \Ye  would  suppose  in 
view  of  this  fact  that  the  immunity  gained  will  be 
lost  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  and  this  is  what 
actually  occurs.  All  inoculations  for  all  disi-.. 
must  be  repeated  in  order  to  secure  a  practical 
immunity.  Vaccination  must  be  often  repeated  to 
be  of  any  service-.  The  reason  ol  it  all  is  that  the 
immunity  is  actually  lost  by  this  law  of  atavism. 
Variation,  heredity,  and  atavism  seem  to  underlie 
the  beauty,  the  glory,  and  the  good  health  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 
QUEER  MEDICAL  FADS. 

A  FEW  years  ago  Dr.  Brown-Sequard,  an  emi- 
nent physiologist,  conceived  the  idea  that  the 
elixir  of  animal  germ  cells  had  phenomenal  power 
and  might  have  unknown  powers.  Brown-Sequard 
seems  to  have  reasoned  that  if  the  germ  cells  had 
the  power  of  originating  individual  life  and  trans- 
mitting the  heredity  of  species,  genera,  and  orders, 
they  would,  perhaps,  renew  the  life  energy  of 
old  people.  The  heritage  of  life  is  death.  All 
men  recognize  that  death  is  an  inevitable  result  of 
the  laws  of  heredity.  Physiology  records  that  the 
forces  which  renew  life  reside  in  the  germ  cells. 
These  cells  contain  the  mystery  of  life  —  its  type, 
its  soul,  its  secrets.  These  cells  bear  the  written 
record  of  the  kingdoms  and  types  of  life  that  are 
dead.  Every  past  and  forgotten  type  of  anatomical 
formation  of  brain,  thought,  and  instinct  is  recorded 
on  the  walls  of  the  germ  cells.  The  conception 
and  birth  of  a  new  individual  bring  all  these  forces 
into  play.  A  new  person,  or  living  individual,  is 
seemingly  created,  but  not  so  in  reality.  Nature  in 
apparent  creation  of  a  new  individual  takes  an  old 
book,  or  rather  an  old  library,  and  resetting  the  type 
with  the  addition  of  some  fresh  editorial  comments, 

no 


QTT.KR    MEDICAL   FADS.  i  n 

a  preface,  and  a  few  more-  perfect  illustrations,  per- 
haps, issues  a  new  volume  on  an  old  subject.  Every 
new  individual  is  a  compilation,  more  or  less,  as  is 
every  new  hook.  Even*  new  book  embraces  what 
has  gone  before  in  science,  or  literature  and  history, 
along1  special  and  general  lines.  Kverv  new  indi- 
vidual does  the  same.  The  little  variations,  additions, 
and  improvements  in  new  books  and  new  individuals 
indicate  the  progress  of  development  which  under- 
lies the  evolution  of  all  things  — men  as  well  as 
books. 

Brown-Sequard  was  a  biological  bibliomaniac. 
He  knew  that  the  method  of  reproduction  in  bring- 
ing out  new  books  is  to  rewrite  them  and  reprint 
them  in  printing  shops.  When  old  books  are  dead 
their  heredity  must  be  preserved,  so  far  as  their 
usefulness  is  concerned,  in  the  ideas  and  tvpes  of 
new  books.  The  old  book  cannot  be  inoculated 
with  modern  things  and  made  to  serve  duty  once 
more.  In  time  the  type,  paper,  age,  ideas,  are  pre- 
served by  bibliomaniacs  as  curiosities.  All  that  is 
worth  preserving  in  the  elements  is  now  found  in 
new  books,  as  well  as  a  few  elements  among  the 
immediate  ancestry  that  the  authors  and  book- 
makers are  trying  to  eliminate. 

Brown-Sequard  wanted  to  save  the  old  books  at 
the  expense  of  new  ones.  He  thought  he  could 
employ  the  forces  of  the  printing  shops,  or  the  pub- 
lishing1 house,  in  some  manner,  to  reprint  the  old 
book  ;  but  he  failed.  The  printers  knew  not  the  old 
book  ;  they  did  not  know  how  to  set  up  new  type 


112        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

and  run  it  through  the  cylinder  press  and  the 
bindery,  add  a  new  preface,  and  declare  that  the  old 
print  was  a  new  issue  and  up  to  the  times.  Brown- 
Sequard's  elixir  failed.  His  hypodermic  of  germ 
cells  went  wandering  through  the  blood  current  in 
old  and  diseased  vessels,  looking  upon  the  ancient 
blood  corpuscles  as  modern  youth  study  the  ruins 
of  old  cities,  with  curiosity,  but  with  no  intention  of 
making  a  permanent  residence. 

The  old  book  gives  up  its  ideas  to  a  writer,  its  old 
paper  to  a  paper  mill,  its  old  methods,  history,  form, 
and  individuality  to  the  forces  of  reproduction  ;  all 
that  is  useful  is  preserved  in  the  new  book.  The 
old  man  must  do  the  same  His  body  must  go 
down  to  the  elemental  mill  of  nature  and  be  ground 
over  ;  but  his  progeny  will  inherit  and  the  world 
will  know  his  type,  his  thought,  his  individuality,  by 
a  new  individual.  Nature  cannot  make  him  young. 
Joshua  may  have  delayed  the  sun  in  its  course  and 
jarred  the  universe,  but  Brown-Sequard's  elixir 
probably  never  added  a  day  to  the  existence  of  an 
octogenarian.  Neither  nature  nor  man  puts  new 
wine  into  old  bottles. 

Brown-Sequard  was  an  experimental  physiolo- 
gist. He  was  a  scientist.  As  we  all  know,  all 
science  is  the  result  of  experiment.  Edison  is  an 
experimental  scientist.  Brown-Sequard  was  honest 
in  his  experiment,  but  mistaken  in  the  results.  He 
may  have  conceived  the  experiment  through  a 
desire  to  find  a  remedy  for  old  age  ;  but  reproduc- 
tion, as  a  force  of  biology,  cannot  be  used  in  that 


OI'EER    MEDICAL    FADS.  n.3 

manner.  Brown-SequarcTs  persistent  belief  in  the 
virtue  of  his  experiment  simply  shows  delusion. 
H is  elixir  is  dead.  It  failed  to  tune  up  the  old 
harp  string's  of  humanity  to  accompany  the  angelic 
song  and  symphony  of  perpetual  youth.  Nature 
had  already  invented  second  childhood.  Brown- 
Sequard's  elixir  failed  to  put  a  new  soul,  new  life, 
new  ambitions,  hopes,  loves,  disappointments  into 
the  shrunken  brains  of  the  aged,  where  they  would 
have  been  as  lost  to  the  world  as  school  children  in 
a  desert. 

All  inventions  similar  to  Brown-Sequard's  elixir 
have  failed.  The  earliest  faith  sought  eternal  and 
incarnate  life  on  earth  ;  but,  witnessing  inevitable 
relentless  death,  learned  to  transfer  immortality  to 
another  world  with  golden  streets  and  fields  in  per- 
petual bloom.  The  alchemists  spent  their  day  and 
energy  in  the  search  for  an  elixir  vitaj  that  might 
at  least  procrastinate  death,  if  not  perpetuate  life. 
The  earliest  man  feared  death  ;  his  children  hoped 
to  avoid  it.  But  the  work  of  heredity  is  over  all 
living  things.  The  inevitable  la\v  of  heredity  is 
that  all  living  things  must  perish  ;  that  individual 
forms,  even  if  never  diseased,  must  approach  the 
portal  of  senility  with  feeble  energy,  and,  comforted 
by  a  benumbing  euthanasia,  give  their  bodies  to  the 
forces  of  nature,  losing  their  individuality  among 
the  chemical  elements.  "  It  is  appointed  unto  all 
men  once  to  die."  If  they  arc  not  killed  by  disease, 
they  die  from  old  age,  as  the  consequence  of  disease 
upon  their  ancestry.  I  do  not  doubt  that  this 


114        THE    N()\   HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

heredity  could  be  changed.  I  believe  that  the  ban- 
ishment of  all  poisons  would  prolong  life  ;  that  an 
extended  average  duration  of  life  could  be  trans- 
mitted by  heredity,  which  would  ultimately  increase 
the  duration  of  life  to  many  hundred  years.  But  no 
alchemist's  or  Brown-Sequard's  elixir  can  do  this 
work.  The  work  can  be  done  only  by  natural 
selection  when  the  factor  of  poisoning  is  omitted 
from  the  problem  of  life. 

But  it  appears  that  Sequard's  idea  in  his  lite- 
giving  elixir  did  not  die  childless.  The  germ  cell 
of  the  guinea-pig  was  prolific  with  the  potency  and 
power  of  great  inventions. 

Dr.  William  A.  Hammond,  at  one  time  Surgeon- 
General  of  the  United  States  army,  illustrates  the 
remarkable  power  of  "  cerebrine  "  on  the  muscular 
strength  by  exhibiting  an  athlete  putting  up  a 
dumb-bell  weighing  forty- five  pounds.  He  raised 
the  bell  fourteen  times  with  his  right  hand  and 
eleven  times  with  his  left  ;  which  was  declared  to 
be  the  limit  of  his  strength  and  ability.  After  an 
injection  of  the  cerebrine  he  put  up  the  bell  forty- 
two  times  with  his  right  and  thirty-five  times  with 
his  left  arm. 

Dr.  Hammond  knew  very  well  when  making  this 
exhibition  that  the  evidence  of  the  athlete's  ability, 
before  and  after  taking  cerebrine,  is  subjective  evi- 
dence and  is  not,  therefore,  scientific.  Dr.  Ham- 
mond, perhaps,  did  not  intend  to  give  a  scientific 
exhibition.  The  test  reminds  us  of  those  given  a 
few  years  ago  by  scientific  and  other  gentlemen  in 


QUEER    MEDICAL    FADS.  '  '5 

illustration  of  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism.  These 
gentlemen  employed  professional  subjects  for  their 
experiments.  Dr.  Hammond's  athlete  appears  to 
be  of  this  character. 

Dr.  Hammond  claims  that  eerebrine  can 
strengthen  the  energy  of  the  prize  fighter  and  of  the 
college  crews,  as  well  as  cure  disease,  restore  lost 
yigor,  stimulate  decaying  intellect,  renew  the  depart- 
ing life.  Humanity,  in  relation  to  the  world  and 
the  great  future,  when  ccrcbriuc  becomes  generally 
used,  will  occupy  the  position  of  the  heroes  of 
Conwav's  great  fiction,  "Called  Hack"  \Ve  may 
imagine  the  popularity  and  usefulness  of  a  remedy 
to  people  who  desire-  to  make  some  strenuous  effort 
of  mind  or  body,  "the  one  great  effort  of  their 
lives,"  for  fortune,  for  fame,  or  for  life. 

People  will  no  longer  be  content  with  the  humble 
prayer,  "Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  but  the 
supplication  will  be,  "Give  us  our  cere-brine  that 
we  may  have  intellects  like  Newton,  strength  like 
Hercules,  and  speed  like  the  winged  Mercury."  We 
all  desire  these  things;  we  all  want  clear,  unfading 
minds;  we  want  strength,  capability,  and  beauty. 
These  things  underlie  success.  We  all  want  suc- 
cess. Dr.  Hammond  has  learned  the  desires  of  the 
human  heart.  He  knows  what  all  people  want  and 
would  like  to  have  forever.  He  knows  why  these 
things  are  sometimes  failures  and  why  they  fade 
away. 

But  has  Dr.  Hammond  found  a  remedy?  He 
is  a  scientist  second  to  no  physician  in  the  United 


n6        THE    NON-HEREDITY  OF    INEBRIETY. 

States.  He  offers  us  no  clinical  evidence.  He 
shows  us  no  cures.  He  points  out  no  cases  of  old 
men  made  young  again.  He  shows  us  only  this 
farce  of  an  athlete  putting  up  a  dumb-bell,  and  a 
patent  for  his  remedy. 

The  saddest  feature  of  this  business  is  the  atti- 
tude of  the  medical  profession  toward  Dr.  Ham- 
mond. The  doctor  published  his  formula,  but  he 
violates  the  code  by  fixing  a  patent  upon  it.  The 
code  of  medical  ethics  knows  the  formula,  but  is 
not  allowed  to  make  the  remedy.  This  appears  to 
be  so  much  more  satisfactory  to  the  code  than  a 
failure  to  know  the  remedy.  In  Dr.  Hammond's 
cerebrine  there  is  no  evidence  of  its  value  except 
that  offered  by  the  athlete.  Dr.  Hammond  is 
making  no  mistake  in  this  matter.  He  knows  all 
about  the  conception,  trial,  and  failure  of  Brown- 
Sequard's  elixir.  He  knows  very  well  that  Brown- 
Sequard  was  led  to  make  these  experiments  from 
accurate  physiological  data.  Brown-Sequard  relied 
on  a  possible  unknown  power  for  results  which  the 
germ  cells  might  possess,  based  on  his  knowledge 
of  the  reproductive  power  he  knew  them  to  possess. 
Brown-Sequard  was  mistaken.  But  there  are  no 
germ  cells  in  cerebrine,  or  cardine,  or  nervine, 
or  musculine  —  Dr.  Hammond's  new  productions. 
There  is  not  even  beef  essence  in  his  cookery,  nor 
genius  in  his  method.  Dr.  Hammond  has  been  a 
great  man  in  the  profession.  He  is  a  tower  of  pro- 
fessional grandeur  and  example.  He  is  no  man's 
intellectual  inferior  in  the  medical  profession.  In 


QUEER    MEDICAL    FADS. 


1 1 


his  specialty  he  has  stood  for  years  as  the  most 
imposing  colossus  of  them  all.  His  cerebrine 
marks  his  fall.  It  is  like  the  decay  of  the  monolith 
and  indicates  that  the  beautiful  stone  is  simply 
turning  to  powder  and  will  soon  be  dust. 

In'  the  manufacture  of  these  animal  remedies 
Dr.  Hammond  takes  a  quantity  of  brain  tissue',  or 
other  tissue-  as  may  be  required,  and  adding  a  suffi- 
cient quantity  of  boric  acid  and  glycerine,  sub]' 
the  whole  mass  to  filtration  and  maceration  under 
pressure  for  several  months. 

Seriously,  what  is  cercbrine,  and  what  is  cardine, 
musculine,  and  the  remainder  of  these  e.\tra« 
It  is  clear,  from  the  process  of  preparation,  as  de- 
tailed by  Dr.  Hammond  of  ox  brain  and  the  other 
articles — that  they  will  contain  very  little  in  addition 
to  the  boric  acid,  the  alcohol,  and  whatever  chemical 
compounds  the  tissues  so  subjected  may  be  trans- 
formed into  and  may  have  contained  at  the  beginning 
of  the  manipulation.  The  chemical  compounds  will 
be  the  leucomaines  —  the  waste  products  of  the 
decomposition  of  the  tissue.  Let  us  see  what  these 
leucomaines  are  and  what  effect  they  will  have  if 
hypodermicallv  injected  into  the  blood  current. 

Leucomaines  are  the  basic  products  of  the  ret- 
rograde metamorphosis  of  the  tissues,  including 
protoplasm.  These  basic  products  are  being  manu- 
factured continuously  during  the  exercise  of  the 
animal  body.  They  are  the  chemical  residue  of 
the  changes  of  a  chemical  nature  which  results 
from  exercise,  work,  or  development  of  energy  in 


n  THE    XOX  HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

any  tissue.  They  result  from  any  chemical  decom- 
position of  any  nitrogenous  tissue,  if  the  decompo- 
sition is  free  from  putrefaction.  Dr.  Hammond's 
process  of  the  preparation  of  ox  brains  is  free 
from  putrefaction,  or  is  supposed  to  be  ;  therefore 
his  product  must  be  leucomaines.  His  cerebrine  is 
a  basic  chemical  compound,  added  to  boric  acid 
and  alcohol. 

But  if  his  process  is  not  kept  aseptic,  and  putre- 
faction is  the  result,  he  will  also  get,  in  his  cere- 
brine,  an  assortment  of  ptomaines  or  bacterial 
products.  These  will  likely  be  putrescine  and 
cadaverine.  These  ptomaines  are  of  course  deadly 
poisons  and  would  scarcely  answer  for  medicine. 

But  the  leucomaines  are  also  poisonous,  although 
they  are  tolerated  in  the  animal  body,  as  they  are 
created  and  occupy  the  body  until  they  are  elimin- 
ated. An  excessive  quantity,  however,  in  the  blood 
current  always  causes  poisoning;  in  fact,  in  many 
diseases  of  fatal  nature  the  immediate  cause  of 
death  is  the  retention  in  the  body  of  these  poisons, 
owing  to  the  disease  of  some  eliminating  organ. 
This  is  the  usual  mode  of  death  in  Bright's  disease. 

These  leucomaines  are  divided  into  two  groups 
called  the  uric  acid  group  and  the  creatinine  group. 
In  the  first  group  the  two  principal  and  character- 
istic compounds  are  adenine  and  hypoxanthine. 
Now  as  these  are  the  typical  leucomaines  which 
result  from  the  decomposition  of  tissue  cells  and 
nuclei,  we  can,  by  understanding  them,  obtain  what 
I  would  consider  a  correct  idea  and  estimate  of 


MEDICAL    FADS.  •!  19 

Dr.     Hammond's    cerebrine    ,'iiul     its     action     as    a 
remedy. 

Adenine  was  first  prepared  from  the  pancreatic 
gland  by  a  chemist  who  ga\ c  to  the  basic  substance 
the  name  adenine,  tin-  (ireck  derivative  meaning 
gland.  It  is  a  white,  crvstalline  powder.  Kxpcri- 
ments«show  that  it  is  also  derived  from  the  nuclei 
of  animal  and  vegetable  cells.  It  is  found  in  nearly 
all  organs  of  the  animal  bodv  ;  so  whether  Dr. 
Hammond  uses  heart,  liver,  brain,  nerve,  or  muscle 
for  his  preparation,  he  cannot  avoid  the  adenine  of 
the  cell  nuclei  of  these  tissues  in  his  reined v.  The 
substance  is  also  found  in  tea  leaves.  Adenine 
stimulates  muscular  activity,  when  inoculated,  and 
it  mav  be,  therefore,  that  the  great  volubilitv  which 
is  reported  to  attend  tea  parties  mav  be  due,  in 
part,  to  adenine.  However  this  mav  be,  it  is  no 
doubt  a  fact  that  the  drug  is  a  poison,  and  as  a  medi- 
cine or  a  food  has  no  value.  If  it  were  of  anv  ; 
siblc  use  in  the  animal  economy,  nature  would  not 
have  provided  a  method  of  carrying  it  out  of  the 
body  as  soon  as  manufactured.  Our  leading  chem- 
ists, however,  submit  a  supposition  that  adenine  has 
something  to  do  with  the  reproduction  of  the  non- 
nucleated  cells.  These  cells  have  no  power  of  self 
reproduction,  although  they  are  quite  numerous. 
The  nucleus  of  the  cell  is,  therefore,  supposed  to  be 
the  seat  of  the  reproductive  power,  and  the  adenine 
in  the  nuclei  is  supposed  to  be  the  chemical  com- 
pound and  force  which  do  the  reproductive  work. 
It  is  therefore  inferred  that  the-  free  adenine,  during 


T20        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

its    elimination,   or    at    least    its    formation,    is    the 
reproductive  agent  of  the  non-nucleated  cells. 

The  general  description  of  hypoxanthine  is  so 
nearly  like  that  of  adenine  that  no  one  but  a  tech- 
nical chemist  can  appreciate  the  difference. 

All  of  these  basic  chemicals  are  waste  products. 
They  are  the  results  of  labor  done.  They^are  the 
ashes  of  the  fires  of  life.  It  requires  great  energy 
to  maintain  the  functions  of  an  animal  or  human 
body.  All  this  energy  is  manufactured  by  the 
burning  of  the  body,  or  its  oxidation.  The  tissue 
cells  are  the  furnaces  of  this  energy,  while  the  ashes 
of  their  oxidation  are  the  leucomaines.  These  ashes 
are  carefully  carried  out  of  the.  body  as  they  are 
manufactured.  They  are  extraordinary  products. 
Their  safety  depends  on  the  fact  that  the  animal 
body  has  excretory  organs  for  their  elimination,  all 
trained  and  practiced.  The  drugs  are  untested  and 
unknown  as  medicines. 

If  there  is  any  virtue  in  musculine,  it  is  obtained 
from  beef-steak  ;  and  the  same  rule  will  apply 
to  all  the  other  products  or  extracts.  But  ashes  are 
not  food  or  medicine  ;  they  supply  no  energy  ;  they 
are  'chemically  dead.  They  belong  to  the  realm  of 
the  elements.  They  are  simply  a  measure  of  work 
that  has  been  done.  They  can  do  nothing. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

WHAT   IS   INK1JKIKTY  ? 

HAVING  defined  the  various  phenomena  of  dis- 
ease and  the  causes  which  superinduce  them, 
it  will  be  easv  to  understand  that  inebriety  should 
be  classed  among  the  diseases  of  the  human  family. 
It  remains  to  be  shown  at  some  length  the  nature 
of  this  malady,  together  with  its  results  upon  the 
individual  and  society,  after  which  its  treatment  and 
cure  may  be  proper  subjects  for  consideration. 

First,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  what  is  inebriety  '". 
Heretofore  the  terms,  inebriety,  dipsomania,  alco- 
holism, etc.,  have  been  used  indiscriminately  to 
cover  all  phases  of  drinking.  This  has  brought 
about  an  endless  amount  of  confusion  in  the  minds 
of  the  public  at  large.  The  majority  of  physicians 
also  using  the  same  terms  makes  necessary  an  intel- 
ligent definition,  in  order  that  we  may  thoroughly 
understand  what  inebriety  is,  the  disease  itself,  and 
its  cure.  For  this  reason  it  is  well  to  draw  a  line  of 
demarcation  and  separate  the  users  of  alcohol  into 
two  classes,  inebriates  and  chronic  alcoholics. 

In  chronic  alcoholism  we  have  organic  changes 
in  the  envelopes  of  the  brain,  blood  vessels,  and 
nerve  cells,  or  the  connective  tissue,  to  an  extent 

121 


122        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

that  the  functions  of-  the  brain  are  interfered  with 
to  a  greater  or  less  degree.  Such  persons  are 
practically  insane.  An  eminent  jurist  has  stated  that 
the  dividing  line  between  sanity  and  insanity  is  so 
difficult  to  define  that  if  one  should  set  up  any  one 
person  as  a  type  of  sanity,  every  other  person  would 
be  insane.  While  admitting  the  truth  of  this  we 
should  prefer  to  make  a  discrimination  as  follows  : 
On  one  hand  would  be  those  cases  in  which  patho- 
logical changes  could  be  noticed  upon  careful  dis- 
section and  microscopy,  with  the  pathognomonic 
signs  incident  to  such  changes,  classing  these  per- 
sons as  chronic  alcoholics.  The  other  class  would 
be  composed  of  those  cases  in  which  no  organic  or 
pathological  changes  had  occurred  and  that  are  de- 
fined as  inebriates. 

In  order  to  perform  the  duties  and  functions 
proper  to  their  office  the  nerve  cells  must  be  ex- 
ceedingly sensitive,  variable,  and  unstable  ;  this  very 
condition  is  what  renders  them  so  liable  to  the  ata- 
vistic or  metabolic  changes  that  are  produced  by 
the  action  of  alcohol,  opium,  cocaine,  chloral,  etc. 
These  cells  so  soon  become  dependent  upon  the 
alcohol  or  narcotic  for  the  proper  and  painless  per- 
formance of  their  duties  that  a  period  quickly 
arrives  when  they  will  no  longer  perform  their  du- 
ties and  functions  properly  and  painlessly  except 
when  under  this  influence.  In  this  way  there  has 
been  created  a  necessity  for  the  use  of  the  alcohol 
or  drugs,  which  necessity  really  constitutes  the  dis- 
eases of  inebriety,  morphinism,  etc.  In  other  words, 


WHAT    IS    INEBRIETY?  123 

these  cells  have  become  so  dependent  upon  a  sup- 
ply of  alcohol  or  narcotics  that  nature's  restorative 
remedies,  which  are  only  rest  and  nourishing"  food, 
fail  to  supply  the  cells  with  the  nourishment  that  is 
brought  about  in  this  manner,  in  normal,  healthy 
constitutions.  Hence,  in  inebriety,  morphinism, 
cocainism,  etc.,  the  underlying  condition  is  the 
same,  namely,  the  necessity  that  has  been  brought 
about  by  the  indulgence  in  these  articles  for  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  same. 

Careful  investigation  of  the  cases  presented  to 
me  for  treatment  reveals  the  fact  that  an  exceedingly 
small  proportion  have  advanced  from  the  *tage  <>l 
cell  necessity  to  that  of  change  in  cell  structure. 
A  normal,  healthy  man  desires  only  those  things 
which  are  healthful  and  proper  for  him  ;  for  when  he 
desires  that  which  is  harmful,  it  is  a  diseased  desire 
and  is  always  accompanied  with  a  diseased  or  para- 
lyzed self-control,  thus  indicating  a  vitiated  con-' 
dition  of  the  nervous  system.  \Yc  know,  also,  that 
the  opposing  forces,  appetite  and  will  power,  are 
unequal.  The  appetite  is  persistent,  making  its  de- 
mands felt  at  all  times  ;  while  the  will  is  intermit- 
tent and  requires  an  exertion  to  call  it  forth  and 
retain  it  in  opposition  to  the  appetite.  This  exertion 
is  just  as  wearying  as  either  muscular  or  intellectual 
labor,  so  that  the  time  is  sure  to  come  when,  wearied 
out  by  the  contest,  it  only  demands  some  emotional 
disturbance,  like  that  of  great  joy  or  sorrow,  pain  01 
grief,  or  some  business  complication,  to  complete 
the  relaxation  of  the  will,  when  another  indulgence 


124        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

is  sure  to  follow  from  the  persistence  of  the  appe- 
tite. As  the  chain  is  only  as  strong  as  its  weakest 
link,  so  the  will  is  only  as  strong  as  its  lowest  point 
of  relaxation.  The  strength  of  will  is  dependent  on 
the  healthy  condition  of  the  nervous  system. 

I  deny  that  people  are  made  neurasthenic  by 
overwork  alone.  People  do  not  work  enough.  If 
an  industrious,  honest  laborer,  whether  he  labors 
with  mind  or  muscle,  becomes  debilitated,  the  fad 
is  to  diagnose  his  malady  as  overwork.  Generally, 
it  is  overpoisoning.  A  diversion  of  labor  general ly 
restores  such  people,  because  a  change  of  climate 
and  the  active  exercise  involved  in  running  and 
climbing  about,  get  rid  of  the  poison.  Humanity, 
though  condemned  to  \vork,  is  yet  immensely  lazy. 
Men  may  overplay,  but  they  seldom  overwork  out- 
side of  slavery  ;  while  the  slave  is  slower  than  time 
in  a  railway  station,  with  the  train  ten  minutes  late. 

The  natural  physiology  of  people  manufactures 
poisons  of  many  kinds.  The  tissue  cells,  of  which 
all  organs  of  the  body  are  made  up,  are  not  very 
long  lived.  They  multiply  their  kind,  work  for  a 
living,  furnish  energy  for  their  particular  tissue  in 
the  work  of  the  body  and  the  work  of  the  world, 
and  then  die.  As  they  die,  where  they  live,  their 
bodies  must  be  taken  care  of.  Chemical  action  is 
brought  to  bear  on  these  dead  cells.  Their  compo- 
sition and  chemical  forms  are  changed  into  new 
compounds  fitted  for  elimination,  or  casting  out  of 
the  body.  These  new  chemical  compounds  are  all 
poisons.  The  waste  of  the  body  is  poison,  which  if 


WHAT    IS    INEBRIETY?  i^.S 

not  immediately  carried  out  of  the  body,  will  cause 
fatal  poisoning.  These  poisons,  that  are  many  in 
number,  are  called  leucomaines,  because,  as  a  rule, 
they  resemble  the  white  of  eg| 

\Yhcn  these  poisons  are  not  efficiently  removed 
from  the  body  and  begin  to  poison  the  person,  then 
the  poor  man  thinks  he  is  overworked  and  has  neuras- 
thenia. You  will  observe  that  the-  relation  of  human 
kind  to  poison  is  intimate  and  terrible.  Like  the 
desperate  charge  of  the  six  hundred,  with  foes  in 
front  of  them,  to  the  left  and  the  right  of  them,  tin- 
people  of  this  earth  are  surrounded  with  poisons, 
and  tilled  with  poisons  ;  which  should  convince  the 
observer  that  the  danger  must  be  great,  as  in  truth 
it  is  found  to  be-. 

There  is  probably  no  remedy  so  universal  as  an 
antidote,  or  so  generally  used  for  a  poison,  as 
alcohol.  This  drug  is  the  instinctive  remedy  for 
sorrow,  for  too  much  joy,  for  mental  fatigue  and 
mental  hebetude.  It  is  taken  for  the  blues.  Others 
take  it  to  emphasize,  or,  perhaps,  give  an  accent  to 
happiness.  Alcohol  is  the  great  weather  equal- 
izer, and,  like  the  lord  of  creation,  himself  or  her- 
self, it  has  a  costume  for  each  fleeting  and  changing 
season  —  in  winter,  brandy  and  whisky  ;  in  the  heat 
of  the  summer,  beer  ;  in  mild  temperature,  wine. 
Alcohol  is  the  evolutionizcd  genius  from  centuries 
of  experience.  It  can  fit  all  circumstances  and  con- 
ditions of  life.  It  adapts  itself  to  the  delicate 
stomach  as  champagne.  It  cheers  health.  It  gives 
battle  like  a  valiant  knight  to  disease.  It  takes  the 


126        THE    NON-HEREDITY    OF    INEBRIETY. 

place  of  food,  without  the  labor  of  digestion.  Alco- 
hol is  social  and  sociable.  It  loves  the  haunts  of 
men  and  meets  them  on  terms  of  equality.  It 
loosens  the  tongues  and  puts  words  in  the  speech  of 
cronies  as  well  as  foes.  It  makes  enemies  lie  down 
together,  like  the  lamb  and  lion  of  the  millennium  ; 
while  treating,  friends  assemble  and  pledge  eternal 
fidelity  over  the  cup  that  cheers  and  inebriates. 

There  is  no  human  condition  of  life,  or  of  mind, 
except  the  religion  of  Mahomet,  to  which  the 
elastic  nature  of  alcohol  cannot  adapt  itself.  People 
drink  because  they  are  lonesome  or  sad,  or  in 
society,  or  are  happy,  sick  or  well,  rich  or  poor, 
friends  or  strangers,  religious  or  wicked,  maimed  or 
sound,  men  or  women,  young  or  old,  married  or 
single,  wedded  or  bereaved,  childless  or  parents, 
new-born  or  dying.  During  the  play,  or  between 
the  acts,  at  work  or  recreation,  and  whether  bar- 
barian or  civilized,  owner  or  slave,  ruler  or  servant, 
peasant  or  king  —  all  men,  under  all  conditions,  find 
themselves  adapted  to  alcohol,  or  alcohol  adapted 
to  them.  If  there  is  anything  wrong  with  any  of 
their  adaptations  to  any  condition  of  life,  it  may 
serve  as  an  excuse  for  taking  a  drink. 

None  of  the  work  of  the  world  has  demanded 
more  of  the  bodily  energy  of  mankind  than  that 
expended  in  resisting  poisons  in  general,  and  per- 
haps alcohol  in  particular.  By  expenditure  of 
energy,  in  this  manner,  I  mean  the  energy  of  the 
tissue  cells  ;  physiological  energy  is  a  product  of 
these  cells.  From  the  material  or  physical  side  of 


WHAT    IS    INEBRIETY?  127 

the  question,  the  mind,  the  nerve  force  of  sensation, 
special  sense,  and  emotion,  the  forces  of  the  respir- 
ation, circulation,  digestion,  assimilation,  secretion, 
and  excretion  are  all  derived  from  these  cells  of  the 
tissues.  These  little  microscopic  cells  are  the  units 
of  the  tissues  and  organs,  and  thev  are  the  units  of 
life.  In  poisoning  the  battle  is  between  the  poison 
with  its  chemical  energy  and  the  cells  with  their 
physiological  energy.  The  result  is  the  decompo- 
sition of  the  poison  ;  and  if  the  cells  are  not  killed, 
thev  necessarily  undergo  a  variation  in  tvpe,  which 
variation,  in  their  anatomv  and  functions,  enables 
them  to  resist  the  poison,  whatever  it  mav  be,  to  a 
greater  extent  or  degree. 

Take  a  look  at  the  world  and  its  poisons  ;  take 
a  bird's-cve  view  of  the  awful  fatalitv  of  the  acute 
infectious  and  contagious  disr.i  Ihev  attack 

cvervbodv  and  destroy  almost  everybody.  See  the 
energy  lost  in  fighting  the  enemy,  which  energy  is 
lost  because  the  people  arc-  killed.  Then  see  the 
amount  of  energy  lost  and  time  lost  in  fighting  dis- 
eases bv  the  people  who  recover.  One-half  or 
more  of  the  strength  of  human  life  is  spent  in  fight- 
ing poisons.  Apply  this  rule  to  national  life  and  we 
mav  estimate  that  the  Hgvptians  spent  more  life 
force  fighting  disease  poison  than  in  building  the 
pyramids.  The  Kuropean  middle  ages  spent  more 
of  their  life  fighting  great  epidemics  than  in  build- 
ing all  their  castles  and  cities,  or  in  fighting  each 
other.  It  is  this  waste  of  energy  and  the  short  life 
which  it  brings  which  constitute  the  chief  impedi- 


128        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

ment  of  the  human  race  in  its  struggle  for  the  per- 
fect type  of  manhood  and  the  perfect  type  of  gov- 
ernment. 

Alcohol  is  not  among  the  least  of  the  poisons  in 
destroying  human  energy.  Millions  of  people  give 
up  their  whole  lives  as  slaves  to  this  poison,  which 
they  can  resist  just  enough,  perhaps,  not  to  be 
killed,  but  not  enough  to  prevent  their  being 
bound  in  slavery  to  the  drug. 

As  a  rule  the  inebriate  is  worse  than  a  dead 
man,  so  far  as  his  usefulness  to  the  community  is 
related.  He  earns  but  little,  throws  that  away,  and 
is  an  expense  to  the  public,  which  must  maintain 
police  systems,  prisons,  criminal  courts,  and  tem- 
perance workers  —  chiefly  on  his  account. 

Inebriety,  then,  consists  in  a  variation  of  the 
poisoned  cells,  which  variation  causes  a  change  in 
their  physiology.  The  variation  is  a  molecular 
change,  and  not  known  to  the  eye  or  microscope. 
It  is  a  change  in  the  molecules  of  the  protoplasm  of 
the  cells.  The  greater  phenomena  of  life  exist  in 
the  molecules  and  their  activities.  Here  are  cre- 
ated hunger,  love,  thought,  ideas,  will,  memory,  de- 
sire, and  the  energies  of  life  and  mind.  Look  at  a 
regiment  of  soldiers  ;  they  form  in  many  different 
ways.  The  molecules  do  the  same,  and  each 
change  means  some  manifestation  of  life  or  mind. 
A  dose  of  poison  causes  an  instant  change  of  molec- 
ular arrangement  to  resist  the  poison.  Repeated 
doses  of  poison  cause  such  repeated  similar  molec- 
ular changes  that  these  changes  become  automatic 


WHAT    IS    INEBRIETY?  129 

and  habitual  conditions.  The  work  of  the  cell  is 
henceforth  done  from  the  basis  of  this  molecular 
formation,  and  to  preserve  this  type  of  formation 
alcohol  is  necessary.  Then  there  is  the  condition 
of  inebriety.  The  symptoms  of  inebriety  consist  in 
a  craving  for  liquor,  which  the  will  is  powerless  to 
control  ;  then  follows  a  reaction  and  a  rejection  of 
the  poison,  and  a  period  of  sobriety,  which  is  abso- 
lute in  character.  Inebriety  is  an  automatism  of 
the  cells,  interpreted  as  a  crave  for  alcohol.  The 
automatism  is  periodical  in  character,  and  this  qual- 
ity is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  education  of  the  cells 
is  periodical.  When  a  man  begins  to  drink,  his 
essays  are  periodical,  as  come  the  feasts,  the  social 
meetings,  the  occasions  of  other  character  and  kind 
which  demand  drink  or  are  associated  with,  drink. 
Beginning  to  drink  is  a  vice,  either  on  the  part  of 
the  coming  inebriate  or  those  who  may  be  responsi- 
ble. It  may  simply  be  a  mistake.  Inebriety  itself 
is  a  disease. 


CHAPTER  X. 
THE  EVIL  OF  INTEMPERANCE. 

/T~AHE  water  of  the  earth,  as  a  rule,  is  not  fit  to 
-*-  drink.  It  is  polluted,  contaminated,  adulter- 
ated, defiled.  There  is  no  other  source  of  disease 
so  prolific  as  water.  It  contains  the  microbes  of 
typhoid,  cholera,  consumption,  and  the  eggs  and 
larvae  of  innumerable  parasites.  In  Chicago,  taking 
a  drink  of  water  means  the  risk  of  typhoid  ;  in  New 
Orleans  it  is  malaria  and  pneumonia ;  in  New  York 
it  is  typhoid  again. 

In  cities  the  rule  is  to  draw  the  water  supply 
from  lakes  and  rivers.  The  rule  is,  also,  to  put  the 
sewerage  in  the  same  rivers  and  lakes.  In  Chicago 
Lake  Michigan  is  used  for  both  purposes.  •  There  is 
a  notable  sanitary  improvement  in  other  cities. 
These  are  not  so  depraved  as  to  drink  the  water 
contaminated  by  their  own  sewerage  ;  but  have 
advanced  so  far  in  ethical  improvement  and  sanitary 
evolution  that  they  only  pollute  each  other's  water 
supply.  Albany  contaminates  the  ice  fields  of  New 
York  ;  St.  Louis  draws  a  supply  defiled  wby  the 
refuse  of  the  cities  of  the  Mississippi  and  Illinois 
river  valleys. 

In  country  places  the  water  is  drawn  from  surface 
wells,  or  the  supply  is  the  ground  water.  This 

130 


THE    EVIL   OF    INTEMPERANCE.  131 

water  continually  washes  the  grave  yards,  cess- 
pools, stock  yards,  and  vaults  and  gathers  up  the 
microbe  of  disease.  These  country  places  have 
their  regular  annual  crops  of  typhoid  and  consump- 
tion, as  they  do  their  seedtime  and  harvest. 

To  escape  these  dangers  some  people  avoid 
drinking  water  as  much  as  possible.  I  think  that 
during  the  past  few  years  I  have  met  not  a  few 
individuals  who  succeeded  in  getting  along  for 
a  considerable  time  without  drinking  any  water. 
People  who  can  afford  it  buy  the  gaseous  table 
waters  from  numerous  springs.  Others  use-  Pasteur 
filters;  but  thev  grow  faint  when  they  examine  the 
debris  of  the  filter  and  see  what  it  contains  —  what 
the  sad  "might  have  been"  would  have  been  in 
their  drink  without  the  filter. 

The  sparkling  appearance  of  water,  so  pure  and 
bright,  as  it  has  been  apotheosized,  is  clue  to  car- 
bonic dioxide.  This  carbonic  gas,  as  it  is  found  in 
water,  is  the  product  of  putrefaction  in  the  soils. 
It  simply  indicates  that  the  water  originally  came 
from  a  soil  polluted  by  decaying  matter. 

A  popular  ode  is  the  well-remembered  "Old 
Oaken  Bucket."  How  many  of  us,  like  the  writer 
of  it,  remember  it  as  it  hung  in  the  well.  Like  him 
we  have  drawn  its  dripping  staves  from  pellucid 
depths,  and,  fixing  our  lips  to  the  frayed  edge,  have 
drank  passionately  our  fill  at  command  of  that  most 
unendurable  of  all  sensations,  thirst.  It  is  only 
within  a  few  years  that  the  world  has  learned  that 
fever  lurks  within  the  coolness  of  clear  waters  in 


I33        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

old  oaken  buckets,  and  even  while  thirst  is  cooled, 
the  seeds  of  a  greater  thirst  are  sown.  I  presume 
the  poison  of  many  thousand  cases  annually  of 
typhoid  are  derived  from  the  country  wells  —  drawn 
from  cool,  pellucid  depths,  by  ancient  well  sweeps, 
chain  and  suction  pumps,  or  even  by  the  end  of  the 
clothes  line  or  bucket  hook. 

A  man  will  suffer  hunger  for  a  time  with  great 
fortitude  —  particularly  if  there  is  anything  in  it  — 
provided  he  is  supplied  with  drink.  He  will  not 
endure  thirst  for  love  or  money,  no  matter  how  well 
he  is  fed.  All  people  know  the  torture  of  thirst, 
which  has  driven  men  to  the  tapping  of  their  veins 
for  the  drinking  of  their  own  blood.  When  the 
inspired  writer  wished  to  impress  upon  his  readers 
the  torment  of  the  damned,  in  language  that  all 
men  could  understand,  he  pictured  Dives  in  torment 
asking  of  Lazarus  up  in  Abraham's  bosom  for  just 
a  drop  of  water  to  cool  his  thirst.  Even  one  drop 
might  break  the  terrible  monotony,  the  eternal 
desert  of  the  torture  of  his  thirst.  It  is  interesting 
to  remember  how  Lazarus  treated  this  thirsty  sin- 
ner. Did  he  give  him  water  ?  No,  he  refused  him 
even  that  drop  of  pure  water ;  just  like  one  of  our 
earthly  commissioners  of  a  public  water-works. 

The  other  drinks  of  this  world  contain  alcohol. 
They  are  pleasant  and  nauseous  and  terrible.  They 
do  not  cause  typhoid  and  diphtheria  and  like  dis- 
eases, but  they  all  cause  inebriety.  They  cause  no 
other  disease  than  inebriety,  and  inebriety  consists 
in  an  insane  craving  for  alcohol.  With  water  and 


THE    EVIL  OF   INTEMPERANCE.  i,33 

its  diseases  on  one  hand  and  alcoholic  drinks  and 
inebriety  on  the  other,  thirsty  humanity  is  "between 
the  devil  and  the  deep  sea."  Typhoid  has  no 
charms  over  inebriety  ;  both  mean  suffering  —  may 
be  death.  Inebriety  may  be  preferable  to  chol- 
era ;  but  alcohol  kills  just  as  effectually  as  the 
comma  bacillus.  Yet  we  must  drink,  and  I  am  not 
prepared  to  say  that  the  moral  suasion  reformer  is 
correct  in  recommending  the  superior  sanitary  qual- 
ities of  water.  It  is  necessary,  first,  to  reform  the 
water. 

In  the  meantime  you  can  see  the  gaunt  spectre, 
Thirst,  clothed  in  the  mantle  of  despair.  Her  limbs 
are  shriveled,  her  blood  fevered,  her  throat  burning. 
You  see  above  her  the  brazen  sky,  with  the  glint  of 
metallic  stars ;  while  around  her  are  the  withered 
grass,  the  dry  leaves  of  the  trees,  and  beneath  her 
feet  the  crumbling,  arid  soil.  You  may  hear  her 
husky  voice  calling  for  drink.  In  one  hand  she 
holds  the  fabled  glass  of  water,  sparkling  and 
bright,  while  in  the  other  you  see  the  cup  of 
beaded  wine.  ^You  know  that  Thirst  cannot,  will 
not,  hesitate  long ;  I  ask  you  in  the  name  of  human- 
ity, health,  happiness,  and  long  life,  which  of  these 
shall  she  drink  ?  Whatever  her  choice  may  be  we 
must  remember  at  all  times  the  curse  of  drink  — 
that  it  is  a  wicked,  monstrous,  hellish  evil  in  this 
world  of  sin. 

The  great  underlying  cause  of  wickedness  at  the 
present  age  of  the  world  would  seem  to  be  intem- 
perance. It  would  appear  that  the  original  respon- 


134        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

sibility  for  sin,  Satan  himself,  together  with  Sabbath 
breaking,  the  unregenerate  heart,  crimes  against 
person  and  property,  and  the  sin  that  shall  not  be 
forgiven,  have  all  laid  their  burdens  upon  intem- 
perance;  this  sin  of  all  sins  and  the  greatest  of  all 
immoralities  underlies  them  all. 

If  a  man  commit  murder,  he  is  either  instigated 
by  liquor  directly  or  is  sustained  and  soothed  by 
drink.  If  he  incidentally  commits  manslaughter  by 
accident,  it  is  generally  whisky  that  underlies  the 
act.  If  a  man  kill  himself  by  chance,  the  fashion 
is  to  make  inquiries  on  the  subject  of  liquor  in 
relation  to  the  sad  occurrence.  In  all  clinical 
reports  of  diseases  the  question  of  alcoholism  is 
always  considered,  and  alcohol  frequently  shoulders 
the  responsibility  for  an  unfortunate  ending  of  the 
case. 

In  public  brawls  and  indiscriminate  fighting, 
liquor  is  the  general  in  command.  Whisky  is  the 
raven  of  melancholy,  despair,  and  poverty  in  thou- 
sands of  homes.  When  a  woman  is  the  picture  of 
misery  and  does  drudgery  to  support  a  family  of 
children,  the  question  a  stranger  will  ask  is,  "Is 
her  husband  dead  or  a  drunkard?"  King  Alcohol 
is  the  great  "ward  heeler"  in  matters  of  municipal 
politics.  He  dominates  the  government,  dictates 
appointments,  shows  his  "fine  hand"  in  the  ordi- 
nances, and  impedes  the  execution  of  the  laws. 

No  man  can  serve  alcohol  and  virtue.  Public 
morals  and  good  laws  must  be  sacrificed  if  alcohol 
is  favored.  If  people  debauch  themselves,  or  pro- 


THE    EVIL    UF    INTEMPERANCE.  '35 

fane  the  Sabbath,  the  law  must  also  be  violated. 
The  backdoor  of  a  saloon  on  a  Sabbath  morning 
admits  the  law  breaker,  the  inebriate,  men  who 
commit  the  crimes  and  the  sins,  —  who  degrade 
public  morals,  who  desecrate  divine  ordinances,  who 
pollute,  also,  the  virtue  and  happiness  of  the  home. 

No  matter  where  it  is  obtained,  or  when,  alcohol 
is  the  great  cause  of  human  wretchedness  and  pub- 
lic evil.  It  is  the  materialization  of  the  mythol< 
cal  devil.  It  is  Satan  let  loose  for  a  thousand 
years.  It  is  the  In-cl/cbub  of  activity  rather  than 
of  theory.  It  is  the  givat  underlying  cause  of  the 
evil  of  the  nineteenth  centurv. 

The  better  class  of  men  and  women,  including 
the  people  who  are  engaged  in  the  work  of  reform 
and  abating  evil,  recogmV.e  these  truths  about  alco- 
hol. The  object  of  their  labors  is  to  cure  intemper- 
ance. To  the  casual  thinker  the  problem  is  an  easy 
one.  But  results  do  not  flatter  the  labor  of  effects. 
Nothing  is  easier  to  think  than  is  the  abstract  fact 
that  entire  prohibition  would  cure  intemperance  ; 
but,  in  actual  fact,  prohibition  seems  impossible  and 
is  conspicuous  by  its  failure  to  prohibit. 

There  must  be  some  cause  behind  intemperance 
which  makes  prohibition  so  difficult.  I  think  it  is 
readily  found  and  understood  ;  I  believe  it  to  be 
poor  sanitation  and  sickness. 

The  greater  portion  of  liquor  consumed  is  drank 
by  people  —  the  masses  of  the  people  —  who  feel  the 
need  of  a  stimulus  by  reason  of  ill  health.  They 
are  poisoned  by  the  putrefaction  of  dead  organic 


'36        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

matter  in  public  places,  by  cemeteries,  by  rivers 
containing  sewage,  by  filthy  houses,  yards,  and 
streets,  and  by  imperfect  sewers. 

More  than  half  a  million  people  die  every  year 
from  diseases  that  are  called  preventable,  or  filth,  or 
germ  diseases.  They  are  so  called  because  they 
could  be  prevented.  They  are  derived  from  filth 
and  they  are  caused  by  germs. 

The  lax  sanitation  of  the  great  cities  of  America 
causes  pollution  of  the  water,  soil,  and  air  of  the 
land.  People  drink  polluted  water,  breathe  polluted 
air,  and  live  over  polluted  soils.  As  a  consequence 
they  are  poisoned.  The  instinctive  remedy  appears 
to  be  alcohol.  Sewer  gas  and  the  general  products 
of  the  putrefaction  of  dead  organic  matter  poison 
the  blood,  depress  the  spirits,  weaken  the  appetite 
and  digestion,  and  the  people  drink  alcohol. 

I  believe  the  great  cause  of  learning  to  drink  is 
sickness  and  poor  sanitation,  and  that  this  is  what 
makes  prohibitory  laws  difficult  or  impossible.  The 
way  to  secure  prohibition  is  to  banish  disease  and 
disease  infection  from  the  earth.  The  disease 
poisons  are  the  constituents  of  King  Alcohol.  If 
they  are  banished,  he  will  abdicate,  without  waiting 
to  be  prohibited. 

Inebriety  is  a  disease.  I  do  not  say  that  in- 
ebriety causes  people  to  begin  drinking  ;  but  when 
a  man  begins  drinking  from  any  cause  whatever,  he 
will  cause  inebriety  if  he  continues  long  enough. 
Inebriety  consists  in  the  periodical  return  of  a  craving 
for  alcohol,  a  debauch  and  then  a  period  of  sobriety. 


THE    EVIL    OF    INTEMPERANCE.  137 

The  interval  of  sobriety  is  a  part  of  the  disease ;  just 
as  much  a  part  of  it  as  the  debauch  itself.  It  is  no 
indication  that  the  man  will  never  drink  again  ;  he 
will  drink  again.  Of  course,  he  protests  that  he 
never  will.  He  reforms.  His  remorse  is  deep.  His 
repentance  wears  the  sackcloth  and  ashes.  His 
humiliation  lays  him  groveling  in  the  dust.  One 
would  think  that  such  mental  agony  would  prevent 
any  return  of  the  craving  fcr  drink,  by  causing  a 
shock  to  the  nervous  system.  But  not  so  ;  at  the 
allotted  time  all  remorse  has  disappeared.  The 
inebriac  phantoms,  mental  horrors,  and  the  protesta- 
tions of  reform  have  faded  away,  as  buzzards  disap- 
pear in  the  distance  when  we  watch  their  flight. 
Alcohol  has  lost  its  terror.  The  man  grows  to 
believe,  by  the  delusion  of  his  disease,  that  he  can 
take  a  glass  and  then  desist.  Perhaps  he  has  will 
enough  left  to  do  this  ;  perhaps  he  may  repeat  it, 
which  will  strengthen  his  confidence  in  his  will 
power  wonderfully  and  fatally  ;  for  he  now  rapidly 
goes  on  to  his  regular  debauch. 

It  is  impossible  to  take  any  poison  habitually, 
without  causing  disease.  All  disease  is  caused  by 
poison.  Alcohol  cannot  be  drank  for  any  great 
time,  or  in  any  great  quantity,  without  causing  the 
disease  of  inebriety. 

Drunkenness,  until  very  lately,  was  considered  a 
vice,  due  to  wickedness,  a  weak  will,  or  vicious  dispo- 
sition. But  not  all  inebriates  are  vicious  or  wicked, 
or  have  a  weak  will.  Some  inebriates  are  the  bright- 
est, the  best  and  purest  souled  people  on  earth. 


I3S        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

They  are  the  very  salt  of  society,  the  church,  and 
the  business  and  working  world.  A  vicious  man, 
wicked  man,  weak-willed  man,  as  well  as  per- 
sons having  chronic  disease,  persons  in  perfect 
health,  people  in  good  society,  dissolute  persons, 
honest  and  vile,  pious  people,  saints,  sinners,  the 
wise,  the  educated,  the  ignorant,  the  civilized,  the 
barbarian,  are  all  alike  and  equally  susceptible  to 
inebriety.  All  that  is  required  to  make  an  inebriate 
of  any  of  them  is  sufficient  alcoholic  drink. 

But  supposed  cures  of  inebriety,  by  mental  im- 
pressions of  some  kind  or  other,  have  always  been 
employed.  Imprisonment,  moral  reform,  exhorta- 
tions, pledge  signing,  and  conversion  from  sins  have 
been  used  to  this  end.  None  of  these  means  ever 
cured  inebriety.  It  does  not  follow  that  because 
a  man  will  not  drink,  his  inebriety  is  cured.  The 
disease  is  there  ;  but  his  will  is  stronger  than  the 
craving  caused  by  the  disease.  When  the  disease  is 
cured,  no  will  force  is  needed  to  prevent  drinking. 
Imagination  can  cure  no  disease  except  it  be  caused 
by  imagination  ;  but  people  having  real  disease  can 
believe  themselves  cured.  That  is  to  say,  the  signs 
and  symptoms  of  a  disease  may  be  suppressed  by 
dominant  ideas  or  by  belief,  and  yet  the  real  disease 
remain. 

I  believe  that  good  sanitation  underlies  the  pre- 
vention of  inebriety.  In  the  future  the  germ  disease 
will  be  prevented  —  it  will  not  be  cured.  The  dis- 
covery of  the  cause  of  disease  did  not  lead  to  any 
new  method  of  cure,  but  it  led  to  a  new  method, 


THE   EVIL  OF    INTEMPERANCE.  139 

and  a  certain  one,  of  prevention.  Beginning  to 
drink  is  frequently  traced  to  some  illness,  but  con- 
tinuing to  drink  is  caused  by  the  disease  of  inebri- 
ety. The  sanitation  which  will  destroy  the  disease 
germ  will  also  destroy  the  cause  of  beginning  to 
drink. 


CHAPTER  XL 
IS  ALCOHOL  A  FOOD  ? 

discussion  of  the  question,  "Is  alcohol  a 
J-  food?"  has  been  before  the  scientific  public 
for  so  long  a  time,  and  the  ground  has  been  so  thor- 
oughly investigated,  that  little  which  is  new  can  be 
offered.  That  the  question  is  not  settled  beyond 
the  necessity  of  discussion,  or  the  disposition  to 
discuss  it,  is  not  due  so  much  to  the  absence  of 
scientific  data  as  to  the  bias  of  mind  created  by 
temperance  agitation. 

The  line  of  demarcation  between  nutrition  and 
poisoning  is  not  sharply  drawn,  or  a  definite  mea- 
sure ;  it  is  a  moving  equilibrium.  It  is  impossible 
to  define  a  food  without  limitations  and  qualifica- 
tions. A  poison  cannot  be  defined  without  the 
same  qualifications ;  hence,  if  there  are  reasons 
other  than  physiological  ones  why  alcohol  should 
be  classed  as  a  food  or  simply  as  a  poison,  then 
great  difficulty  in  making  either  classification  must 
be  experienced.  When  there  is  controversy  over  a 
subject  the  contestants  should  agree  upon  a  defini- 
tion of  terms  in  any  given  problem.  To  settle  the 
question  scientifically  whether  alcohol  is  a  food  or 
not,  an  agreement  must  first  be  reached  on  a  defini- 
tion of  food  and  nutrition,  in  relation  to  tissue 

140 


IS  ALCOHOL  A   FOOD?  14* 

building  and  physiological  force,  and  poisons  and 
poisoning  in  relation  to  pathological  force.  The 
boundary  line  between  these  things  can  only  be 
fixed,  as  a  stationary  line,  by  arbitration.  When 
this  is  done,  by  taking  this  line  as  a  datum  the  rel- 
ative food  value,  medical  value,  and  poisoning  qual- 
ities of  alcohol  can  be  settled. 

The  second  source  of  difficulty  in  fixing  the  food 
relations  of  alcohol  would  seem  to  depend  upon 
errors  of  induction  from  experiments,  also  due  to 
mental  bias.  The  question  of  physiological  action 
in  relation  to  food  and  poisoning  is  a  very  complex 
one.  In  making  deductions  from  experiments  all 
the  complex  factors  of  the  problem  must  be  esti- 
mated ;  which,  I  may  say,  I  have  never  seen  done 
in  the  record  of  any  experiment  yet  made  on  the 
food  relations  of  alcohol.  I  have  seen  reports 
of  this  character,  denying  that  alcohol  is  a  food, 
because  it  furnishes  no  material  for  building  up  the 
materials  of  tissues,  cells,  and  nuclei.  These  writers 
should  state  conscientiously  when  writing  for  the 
public  good  that  food  is  more  complex  in  action, 
and  not  only  supplies  matter  but  force.  Again,  cer- 
tain writers  declare,  because  alcohol  is  a  poison  in 
a  certain  dose  and  before  oxidation  in  the  blood, 
therefore  it  can  have  no  other  action  in  any 
dose,  before  oxidation  or  afterwards.  These  writers 
should  admit  that  alcohol  is  not  eliminated  as  alco- 
hol ;  that  it  is  a  stimulant  in  small  doses ;  that  the 
greater  part  is  oxidized  in  the  blood  and  tissues,  or 
chemically  changed  ;  and  that  it  is  true  of  this  as 


1 42        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

of  all  drugs,  that  a  small  quantity  acts  as  a  stimu- 
lant on  the  same  tissues  to  which  in  a  large 
enough  quantity  it  has  entirely  an  opposite  effect. 
In  all  poisons  the  rule  is  the  same.  The  deduction 
is  therefore  incorrect,  that  because  alcohol  is  a  poi- 
son in  a  large  dose  it  is  not  a  stimulant  or  a  medi- 
cine in  a  small  one  ;  nor  is  it  correct  to  infer  that 
because  alcohol  furnishes  material  for  building  tis- 
sues, it  therefore  supplies  physiological  force  as 
a  sequence  of  oxidation  in  the  system.  If  it  is 
admitted  that  all  alcohol  drank  is  not  eliminated, 
then  it  follows  that  it  is  chemically  changed  in  the 
system.  If  this  is  true,  then,  to  deny  that  the  pro- 
duct is  force,  which  must  be  correlated  with  physio- 
logical force,  is  simply  denying  the  conservation  of 
energy,  which  is  useless.  To  deny  that  alcohol  is  a 
stimulant  in  a  small  dose,  and  yet  insist  it  is  a  poi- 
son in  a  large  quantity,  is  to  deny  the  fundamental 
principle  of  poisons  and  poisoning ;  to  reject  alco- 
hol as  a  medicine  for  this  reason  would  demand 
the  repudiation  of  all  drugs  used  by  physicians  as 
medicines;  or,  at  least,  those  drugs  which  are  used  to 
antagonize  the  symptoms  of  disease  in  ptomaine  or 
germ  poisoning  of  whatever  character  or  kind.  Any 
of  the  drugs,  as  digitalis,  atropia,  morphia,  hyoscy- 
amus,  etc.,  will  cause  fatal  results  by  paralysis 
of  the  organs  upon  which  in  a  small  dose  they  act 
as  stimulants  and  are  used  as  medicines.  I  speak 
of  this  as  a  generality,  and  do  not  include  the 
physiological  complexities  of  the  case,  involving 
the  special  facts  that  in  the  treatment  of  diseases 


IS  ALCOHOL  A  FQOD  ?  H3 

the  poisonous  dose  of  drugs  is  usually  given.  It  is 
well  known,  that  in,  for  instance,  a  too  rapid  action 
of  the  heart,  digitalis  is  administered  in  poisonous 
doses  to  paralyze  certain  nerves,  so  as  to  equal 
the  inhibitory  and  motor  forces,  in  order  to  lessen 
the  frequency  of  the  heart's  action.  If  it  is  agreed 
that  any  substance  is  a  food  which,  when  taken  into 
the  body,  can  be  decomposed  with  the  liberation  of 
heat  force  or  energy — which  must  then  necessarily  be 
correlated  with  physiological  force, —  then  alcohol 
must  rank  in  this  limited  sense  among  the  articles 
having  a  "  food  value."  I  do  not  regard  as  satisfac- 
tory the  experiments  which  have  been  made,  with 
the  object  of  proving  that  alcohol  when  drank  is  all 
of  it  eliminated.  The-  evidence  seems  to  prove  the 
other  proposition,  that  the  greater  part  of  it  is  de- 
composed. If  this  is  true,  there  is  no  escape  from  the 
conclusion  that  alcohol  has  a  food  value,  howi 
much  this  value  mav  be  clestroved  by  a  poisonous 
action.  In  relation  to  force,  or  the  development  of 
force  in  the  bodv,  or  as  a  result  of  food  qualities,  it 
would  appear  that  alcohol  is  complex  in  its  action  ; 
that  it  has  a  stimulating  and  poisonous  action  while 
it  is  yet  alcohol  in  the  blood  ;  and  that  it  has  a  fur- 
ther action,  relating  to  force  of  a  physiological  char- 
acter, when  it  is  decomposed  or  consumed  in  the 
body.  It  is  clear,  then,  that  an  understanding  of 
the  food  relations  of  alcohol  must  depend  upon  an 
agreement  of  the  definition  of  the  general  principles 
which  underlie  nutrition,  in  the  tissue-building 
sense  and  in  the  development  of  force,  while  all 


*44        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

the  factors  must  enter  into  the  problem.  If  an  esti- 
mate of  the  food  value  of  alcohol  is  made  with  the 
definition  of  food  limited  to  tissue-building,  then 
alcohol  is  not  a  food.  If  the  estimate  is  made  on 
the  basis  of  a  large  dose  of  alcohol,  and  its  poison- 
ous action  as  alcohol  before  its  decomposition, 
then  alcohol  is  not  a  food  or  even  a  medicine,  it  is 
nothing  but  poison.  If  the  estimate  is  made  on  the 
basis  of  a  small  quantity  of  alcohol,  acting  as  a 
stimulant  before  it  is  decomposed,  then  alcohol  is 
not  a  food,  but  ranks  as  a  medicine  ;  acting  as  a 
stimulant  upon  certain  organs  to  which  in  a  large 
enough  quantity  it  is  a  poison.  But  if  we  define 
food  as  an  article  which  furnishes  material  for  tissue- 
building,  and  which  also,  when  decomposed,  yields 
force  which  is  correlated  with  physiological  force, 
and  if  the  question  is  verified  that  alcohol,-  when 
decomposed,  furnishes  heat  inside  the  body,  as  it 
does  when  burned  outside,  then  we  must  certainly 
conclude  that  alcohol  has,  as  a  factor  of  its  physi- 
ological action,  a  food  value,  limited  to  this  condi- 
tion of  things,  so  far  as  its  direct  action  is  con- 
cerned. 

But  it  is  a  matter  of  demonstration  that  this  is 
not  the  extent  of  the  action  of  alcohol.  It  has  an 
inhibitory  action  on  cell  metabolism.  It  prevents 
the  waste  of  tissues.  Under  its  use  the  elimination 
of  waste  products,  as  urea  and  leucomaines,  are 
diminished  nearly  one-half.  This  result  can  be  ac- 
complished only  by  restraining  the  metabolism  of 
cells.  It  is  not  done  by  retaining  effete  products  in 


IS  ALCOHOL   A   FOOD?  145 

the  blood,  for  such  a  result  would  be  disastrous. 
This  action  of  alcohol  in  the  treatment  of  excessive 
waste  is  certainly  apparent  and  of  the  greatest  use. 
Alcohol  then  acts  indirectly,  in  this  manner,  not  to 
supply  food,  but  to  prevent  waste.  It  is  the  great 
conservative  drug  of  nutrition.  In  the  laboring 
man  a  certain  quantity  of  alcohol  will  preserve  the 
body  weight,  with  the  same  food  pounds  of  labor, 
and  with  a  given  quantity  of  food  ;  and  if  these  other 
things  are  equal,  the  absence  of  the  alcohol  will  re- 
quire more  food,  or  a  decrease  either  in  the  labor  or 
body  weight.  I  understand  that  these  things  are 
matters  of  demonstration,  and  that  the  every-day 
use  of  alcohol  among  laborers  satisfactorily  pr< 
the  value  of  the  use,  and  not  the  abuse,  of  alcohol 
as  a  food,  —  direct  and  indirect.  In  disease  the 
food  value,  or  what  may  be  termed  the  medical 
value,  though  there  is  no  difference,  is  seen  in  the 
same  results.  The  ptomaines  increase  the  body 
waste,  elevate  the  body  temperature,  and  cause  local 
inflammatory  disturbances  of  nutrition.  Alcohol 
antagonizes  all  of  these  resultants.  It  lowers  the 
temperature  in  fever  and  greatly  lessens  the  body 
waste  caused  by  the  ptomaines  of  disease.  The 
ptomaines  are  destructive,  but  alcohol  is,  as  I  have 
said,  the  conservative  drug  of  nutrition.  One  of 
the  weakest  arguments  I  have  ever  heard  relating  to 
the  food  question  of  alcohol  is  that  the  conservation 
of  cell  life  in  this  manner  is  a  detriment  to  the  tis- 
sues ;  that  cells  have  their  normal  duration  of  exist- 
ence, but  beyond  this  term  of  life,  whatever  it  may 


M6        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

be,  the  cell  should  not  live  and  is  a  damage  to  tis- 
sues. Logically  followed  out  the  same  argument 
must  apply  to  individuals  as  well  as  cells,  and  while 
we  all  admit  that  human  life  has  its  expectation  oi 
death,  as  well  as  its  "  expectation  of  life,"  yet  all 
sane  people  believe  that,  individually,  the  average 
duration  of  life  is  the  fundamental  force  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  that  human  progress  directly  depends  upon 
the  average  length  of  days.  Personally,  I  have 
made  no  experiments  with  alcohol,  relating  to  its 
food  power.  My  observations  and  tests  have  all 
been  on  alcohol  in  its  relations  as  a  poison.  How- 
ever true  it  may  be  that  alcohol  has  a  food  power, 
it  is  certainly  true,  as  the  victims  of  alcohol  come 
to  me,  that  they  do  not  require  any  more  of  this 
sort  of  diet.  But,  as  I  have  indicated,  the  abuse  of 
alcohol  does  not  disprove  its  physiological  uses, 
although  it  is  true  that  a  substitution  of  another 
carbonaceous  food  is  necessary  in  the  cure  of  drunk- 
enness. The  food  value  of  alcohol  is  of  no  use 
here.  The  old  experiments  made  by  Drs.  Anstie, 
Dupre,  and  Thudicum  seem  to  have  settled  the 
question  experimentally  that  alcohol  has  a  food 
factor.  The  fact  is  an  induction  from  the  experi- 
ments, and  the  experimenters  agree.  I  have  not 
seen  the  experiments  successfully  contradicted,  nor 
am  I  aware  that  the  results  are  any  longer  denied. 
These  experimentations  prove  in  a  general  way  that 
nearly  all  the  alcohol  consumed  is  changed  in  the 
body.  At  least  it  is  not  eliminated  as  alcohol.  This 
fact  is  the  hinge  on  which  swings  all  controversy  on 


IS  ALCOHOL   A   FOOD?  147 

this  subject  of  the  food  value  of  alcohol.  It  must 
be  clear  enough  to  any  ordinary  observer  that  if 
alcohol  did  not  have  some  factor  of  food  relation 
which  conserved  life  as  well  as  poisoned  it,  the 
world  would  have  been  depopulated  soon  after  the 
Noachian  deluge,  and  the  flood  would  not  be  re- 
sponsible for  it. 

To  sum  up  this  question,  I  think  we  may  say  of 
alcohol  that  it  is  a  food,  or  has  a  food  value  or 
action,  limited  to  its  power  of  inhibiting  cell  metab- 
olism, and  furnishing  force  as  a  result  of  its  decom- 
position. It  is  not,  I  think,  certain  as  yet  that 
alcohol  furnishes  material  for  the  construction  of 
tissues,  although  the  food  barriers  between  the 
nitrogenous  and  carbonaceous  foods  are  not  so 
strong  as  formerly.  Alcohol  antagonizes  the  pto- 
maines of  disease,  physiologically  by  its  nutrient 
and  stimulant  powers,  but  it  is  itself  a  poison  to  the 
tissues  upon  which,  in  a  small  quantity,  it  acts  as  a 
stimulant. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  TEMPERATE  USE  OF  ALCOHOL. 

HPHE  Fourth  Anti-Alcohol  Congress,  held  at  The 
-L       Hague,  was  composed  of  delegates  from  most 
of  the  countries  of  Europe  and  from  America. 

The  sensation  of  the  meeting  developed  from  the 
fact  that  some  of  the  delegates  spoke,  or  read 
learned  papers,  advocating  the  moderate  use  of 
alcohol  habitually  rather  than  the  practice  of  total 
abstinence.  The  most  prominent  defender  of  this 
moderate  drinking  theory  was  a  physician,  no  less 
a  personage  than  Sir  Dyce  Duckworth,  honorary 
physician  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  lecturer  on 
medicine  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital.  Dr. 
Duckworth  set  forth  at  length  his  personal  profes- 
sional observations  on  the  action  of  alcohol,  after 
which  he  stated  that  it  has  not  been  proved  that  the 
moderate  use  of  alcohol  is  hurtful  to  the  people  of 
Europe.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  said,  the  most  en- 
lightened nations  had  made  use  of  alcoholic  liquors, 
and  there  is  no  proof  that  the  moderate  use  of 
alcohol,  in  conjunction  with  good  food,  can  injure 
the  organs  of  the  human  body.  On  the  contrary 
there  was  ample  proof  that  such  use  of  alcohol  is 
beneficial.  It  follows,  then,  that  for  many  persons 
complete  and  continuous  abstinence  from  alcohol  is 

148 


THE   TEMPERATE   USE   OF  ALCOHOL.        H9 

not  at  all  to  be  commended.  Such  abstinence 
should  not  be  practiced  for  example's  sake,  for  the 
evidence  is  now  clear  that  such  example  has  never 
been  a  success. 

Dr.  Duckworth  then  suggests  a  remedy  for  over- 
drinking, or  intemperance,  which  he  says  consists  in 
instructing  the  young,  as  a  part  of  their  education, 
that  the  moderate  use  of  alcohol  is  proper  and 
beneficial,  while  its  intemperate  use  is  harmful. 

The  Anti-Alcohol  Congress  received  this  speech 
with  derision  and  consternation  as  well.  A  dyna- 
mite bomb  could  not  have  surprised  and  discon- 
certed ft  to  a  greater  degree.  But  it  developed 
that  the  English  physician  had  powerful  and  numer- 
ous supporters.  Professor  Sokvis  of  Amsterdam, 
one  of  the  recognized  heads  of  the  medical  profes- 
sion of  Holland,  declared  that  man  could  not  exist 
without  a  stimulant,  and  insisted  that  alcohol  was  a 
good  stimulant.  But  he  said  that  alcohol  should 
be  taken  moderately  with  food,  and  admitted  that  if 
a  man  took  large  quantities  of  alcohol  without  food 
the  consequences  would  be  disastrous. 

Dr.  Suiedens,  representing  the  Dutch  society  of 
medicine,  and  Dr.  Smidt,  a  representative  also  of 
the  Holland  medical  profession,  supported  these 
propositions  ;  or  rather,  as  claimed,  these  induc- 
tions. Dr.  Smitz,  of  Bonn,  read  a  paper  to  the 
same  effect.  He,  however,  contended  that  alco- 
holic drinks  were  not  necessary  to  health,  but  that 
the  use  of  them  moderately  would  not  cause  disease. 

As  would  be  expected,  and  as  should  logically 


150        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

follow,  these  gentlemen  fixed  the  limits  of  modera- 
tion. This  amount  was  declared  to  be  one  ounce 
and  one-half  of  alcohol  daily,  which  should  be 
taken  with  the  meals. 

Pastor  Bovet,  of  Berne,  pronounced  this  standard 
of  moderation  to  be  a  concession  to  the  cause  of 
temperance  as  distinguished  from  total  abstinence, 
and  declared  that  if  people  could  be  induced  to 
limit  their  indulgence  in  alcohol  to  this  standard  of 
moderation  it  would  close  seven-eighths  of  the  dis- 
tilleries and  three-fourths  of  the  breweries,  while  it 
would  seriously  limit  the  production  of  the  re- 
mainder. 

I  wish  to  notice  the  inductions  of  these  truly 
eminent  physicians  relating  to  the  national,  indi- 
vidual, temperate,  intemperate,  and  general  physio- 
logical and  pathological  effects  of  alcohol. 

Dr.  Duckworth's  induction  is  that  the  moderate 
use  of  alcohol  is  not  hurtful  to  the  people  of 
Europe.  He  says  that  it  has  not  been  proved  to  be 
so.  This  is  undoubtedly  true  ;  and  the  reason  is  that 
the  European  nations  do  not  use  alcohol  temper- 
ately. They  use  it  intemperately  as  nations.  If 
there  is  no  example  of  the  national  use  of  alcohol 
temperately,  there  can  be  no  proof  or  induction  as 
to  what  the  effect  of  a  national  temperate  use  of 
the  article  would  be. 

Dr.  Duckworth  may  have  meant  that  in  Euro- 
pean countries  there  is  no  proof  that  the  class  of 
people  who  use  alcohol  temperately  receive  any 
notable  injury  from  -it.  There  is  no  longer  any 


THE   TEMPERATE   USE   OF   ALCOHOL,        I51 

doubt  that  alcohol  is  consumed  in  the  body.  Only 
a  small  fraction  of  the  quantity  taken  is  ever  elim- 
inated from  the  body  as  alcohol.  The  inference 
can  only  be  that  it  is  oxidized  in  the  body,  and  in 
this  manner  furnishes  a  food  force.  It  seems  to  be 
a  demonstration  that  alcohol  in  moderate  quantities, 
and  as  it  is  consumed  by  oxidization  in  the  body, 
stimulates  cell  metabolism,  thereby  increasing  the 
power  of  the  cells  to  absorb  nutriment  ;  or  this  use 
of  alcohol  aids  nutrition. 

Experiments  also  seem  to  demonstrate  that  in 
any  given  case  a  small  quantity  of  alcohol  will  en- 
able the  same  amount  of  labor  to  be  done  by  a 
working  man,  on  the  same  amount  of  food,  with  less 
fatigue  and  less  bodily  waste,  as  shown  by  tests  of 
carbonic  acid  and  urea,  than  without  the  alcohol. 
In  other  words,  a  working  man,  on  the  same  quan- 
tity of  food,  if  alcohol  is  added,  can  do  more  work 
with  the  same  or  less  amount  of  bodily  waste  than  if 
alcohol  were  not  present.  These  facts  certainly  sus- 
tain the  opinions  of  Dr.  Duckworth  and  the  other 
physicians,  so  far  as  effects  on  the  body  are  produced 
by  alcohol.  There  is  no  proof  that  this  effect  of 
alcohol  causes  any  perceptible  evil  in  a  general 
sense  upon  the  organs  of  the  body.  The  meaning 
of  this  is  that  such  use  of  alcohol  will  not  cause  de- 
generation of  nerves  or  internal  organs,  that  it  will 
not  cause  fatty  degeneration,  and  that  it  will  not 
cause  inflammation  of  the  peripheral  or  other 
nerves. 

To  this  extent  alcohol  is  useful  in  daily  life.      It 


I52        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

saves  other  food,  but  with  doubtful  economy  even 
in  relation  to  the  food.  No.  man,  however,  can  find 
fault  with  the  laborer  who  has  in  his  dinner  pail  a 
pint  of  malt  liquor  with  his  dinner,  if  this  is  the 
limit  of  his  indulgence.  The  beer  will  aid  his 
digestion  and  assimilation  and  give  him  additional 
strength  and  endurance. 

But  laborers  who  limit  the  use  of  liquor  to  this 
moderate  standard  are  very  few.  In  European 
countries  and  in  America  a  close  canvass  will  show 
that  workingmen  who  drink  this  much  drink  a  great 
deal  more,  and  that  those  who  drink  less  than  this 
probably  do  not  use  alcoholic  liquors. 

But  while  I  admit  all  these  things,  I  claim  that 
facts  will  prove  that  the  standard  of  moderation, 
established  by  these  physicians,  of  one  and  one- 
half  ounces  of  alcohol  daily,  will  produce  inebriety. 
In  fact  any  quantity  of  alcohol  drank  daily  will  pro- 
duce inebriety  in  a  corresponding  degree.  A  man 
may  take  a  very  small  quantity  of  morphine  daily, 
say  one-eighth  of  a  grain,  and  not  cause  any  dis- 
ease except  opium  inebriety.  That  small  quantity 
of  morphine,  taken  daily,  by  its  action  upon  cell 
metabolism,  will  enable  a  larger  amount  of  work  to 
be  done  on  the  same  quantity  of  food.  It  will  do 
almost  everything  that  alcohol  will  do  under  the 
same  conditions.  But  the  man  who  takes  morphine 
in  this  manner  will  increase  the  quantity  in  less 
than  a  month,  and  within  three  months,  unless  a 
guard  with  a  bayonet  is  standing  over  and  weighs 
out  the  morphine  for  him,  he  will  be  taking  three 


THE   TEMPERATE    USE   ul-    ALCOHOL.        i.53 

or  four  grains  at  a  dose.  These  poisons  cannot  be 
taken  in  any  quantity  without  causing  their  respect- 
ive inebrieties. 

It  is  very  true,  as  Dr.  Duckworth  says,  that  the 
enlightened  nations  are  the  liquor  drinking  nations. 
But  the  enlightened  nations  are  not  temperate 
drinkers  as  nations.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
temperate  drinking,  except  by  a  small  class,  in  any 
of  the  enlightened  nations ;  the  people  either  ab- 
stain or  do  not  drink  in  moderation.  Our  temper- 
ate class  is  not  composed  of  those  who  habitually 
drink  a  moderate  quantity,  but  of  those  who  very 
occasionally  take  a  drink.  They  may  consume  an 
ounce  and  a  half  of  alcohol  once  in  three  months 
but  not  daily.  If,  then,  enlightenment  of  a  nation 
is  due  to  alcohol  at  all,  it  is  due  to  inebriety  and  not 
to  temperate  drinking.  There  is  no  enlightened 
nation  whose  people  ever  limited  its  drinking  to 
one  and  one-half  ounces  daily  among  its  drink  ing- 
classes.  If  alcohol  has  aided  the  civilization  and 
progress  of  the  most  enlightened  nations,  it  has 
done  so  in  spite  of  its  evil  effects  in  causing  ine- 
briety. It  has  done  the  work  by  its  stimulating 
effects,  or  its  physiological  antagonism  to  malarial 
or  other  germ  poisons,  or  in  antagonizing  the  efi\ 
of  bad  sanitation.  Alcohol  cannot  produce  the 
highest  development  of  a  nation  or  of  a  man  by 
inebriety,  or  by  drunkenness.  No  person  can  deny 
the  drunkenness  of  the  highly  civilized  and  Chris- 
tian countries,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  factor  of 
temperate  drinking  among  the  people. 


154        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

I  regard  this  as  one  of  the  deepest  social  and 
physiological  problems  in  all  the  history  of  the 
development  of  races  and  countries.  The  facts  as 
stated  cannot  be  denied,  that  the  enlightened 
nations  are  the  inebriate  nations.  These  nations 
have  not  taken  up  inebriety  or  alcohol  drinking  as 
a  sign  of  decay.  Inebriety  and  drunkenness  form 
a  part  of  the  history  of  their  development.  They 
always  drank  and  always  drank  to  excess.  No 
moderate  drinking  was  ever  known  among  them  as 
nations.  I  believe  the  problem  can  be  satisfactorily 
solved  by  the  aid  of  known  biological  laws.  I  will 
first  cite  further  propositions,  or  facts,  and  then  try 
to  induce  the  general  answer  or  law  to  explain 
special  facts. 

The  enlightened  nations  are  the  inhabitants  of  the 
coolest  countries.  That  implies  greater  obstacles  to 
overcome  in  earning  a  living  and  preserving  life. 
The  enlightened  nations  furnish  us  the  history  of  the 
greatest  wars.  These  nations  likewise  have  suffered 
most  from  epidemics.  They  have  also  consumed 
the  greatest  quantities  of  alcohol  and  other  poisons. 
It  is  a  law  of  biology  that  the  necessity  of  resist- 
ing some  enemy  causes  development  of  faculties 
and  functions.  If  an  animal  reaches  a  certain  stage 
of  development  in  any  climate,  where  he  is  accli- 
mated, has  no  enemies,  and  feeds  on  ready-made 
food,  that  animal  will  make  no  further  development. 
There  is  no  action  upon  him  or  his  species  or  gen- 
era to  cause  reaction,  or  variation,  or  increased 
activities.  His  development  is  finished.  The  less 


THK    TEMPERATE    I  :IOL         155 

enlightened  nations  will  show  this  history.  They 
had  no  cold  to  overcome,  no  necessity  for  exertion  ; 
their  wants  were  comparatively  well  supplied.  The 
plow  was  not  invented  by  the  man  lying  under  a 
bread-fruit  or  banana  tree,  but  by  one  whose  ancestors 
lived  so  close  to  a  glacier  that  they  were  obli. 
to  rob  the  fur  animals  of  their  skins  in  order  to 
keep  from  freezing,  and  in  a  country  so  barren  that 
their  bread  must  be  a  result  of  labor  and  invention. 
"Necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention"  and  also  of 
development  and  civilization. 

The  terrific  wars  of  the  higher  nations  have 
seemed  to  introduce  new  inventions,  have  fui 
nations  into  energetic  activity  ;  activity  on  the  de- 
fensive or,  even,  as  aggressor,  always  creates  some- 
thing. It  generally  results  in  some  new  variation 
and  development,  which  is  an  individual  and  na- 
tional help. 

Great  epidemics  and  grief  over  the  loss  of  the 
young  and  beloved  have  stimulated  thought,  activ- 
ity, and  invention.  It  has  finally  resulted  in  learn- 
ing the  cause  of  disease.  If  a  man  or  a  nation 
set  out  to  learn,  by  mental  and  other  activities 
and  in  resistance  to  disease,  a  method  of  prevent- 
ing disease,  those  activities  will  result  in  discovering 
many  things,  perhaps,  in  addition  to  the  cause  of 
disease. 

Man  as  a  machine  is  capable  of  a  great  amount 
of  activity  and  development  ;  but  the  history  of 
nations  will  show  that  unless  there  is  some  stimu- 
lant to  activity  there  will  be  laziness.  If  a  nation  is 


I56       THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF    INEBRIETY. 

fed  without  work,  it  will  grow  lazier  every  day,  until 
it  passes  out  of  existence. 

But  national  enlightenment  is  the  price  of  human 
blood  and  human  life.  No  great  obstacle  to  easy 
living,  stimulating  because  dangerous,  can  be  en- 
countered by  a  nation  without  much  destruction  of 
life.  Probably  many  millions  of  human  lives  were 
destroyed  by  the  microbe  before  science,  reaching 
in  all  directions,  stimulated  by  a  desire  to  live  and 
the  necessity  of  destroying  the  cause  of  disease, 
finally  found  the  microbe  and  established  the  science 
of  microbiology. 

Wars  have  killed  millions  of  people,  but  have 
done  much  towards  human  development  and  na- 
tional enlightenment.  The  necessity  of  invention  to 
avoid  destruction,  or  for  conquest  in  war,  resulted  in 
a  diffusion  of  knowledge,  the  mingling  of  blood, 
brawn,  and  brain,  and  the  moral  development  of  men 
and  nations.  Human  liberty  is  the  result  of  war 
and  the  shedding  of  human  blood.  It  appears  that 
human  development  is  secured  by  human  activities 
that  result  from  necessity  ;  unless  some  exigency 
arises  there  will  be  no  activity.  It  also  appears  that 
all  great  human  stimulants  to  activity,  or  the  condi- 
tions imposed  upon  humanity  to  overcome,  while 
they  have  resulted  in  general  development,  have 
also  cost  the  loss  of  individual  life. 

I  regard  alcohol,  in  its  relation  to  the  enlightened 
nations,  as  one  of  these  fatal  obstacles  imposed  upon 
the  people  to  stimulate  resistance  and  thereby  in- 
crease national  intellectual  and  moral  activities.  Al- 


THE    TEMPERATE    USE    OF   ALCOHOL.        i.S7 

cohol  has  not  by  direct  action  made  the  nations 
enlightened,  nor  developed  the  physical,  moral,  or 
intellectual  type  of  man.  It  has  developed  man, 
not  as  his  friend  but  as  his  enemy.  In  this  way 
alcohol  is  an  associate  of  enlightened  nations.  Al- 
cohol has  stimulated  scientific  research.  It  has  cre- 
ated many  scientific  and  moral  organizations,  whose 
object  is  to  elevate  the  human  moral  character  and 
to  resist  alcohol  and  other  moral  evils  at  the  same 
time  ;  thereby  much  mental  and  moral  development 
is  promoted,  which  furnishes  a  factor  in  the  total 
enlightenment  of  a  nation. 

Like  wars,  epidemics,  cold,  storms,  famine,  and 
other  such  obstacles,  alcohol  has  slain  its  millions. 
It  has  put  the  stamp  of  inebriety  upon  the  brain  of 
nations.  It  has  debauched  and  ruined,  debased  and 
made  drunken  ;  but  it  has  stimulated  resistance  and 
thereby  increased  human  activity.  It  consequently 
ranks  as  an  cnemv,  which,  in  being  conquered,  has 
aided  the  enlightenment  of  the  Christian  nations. 

By  having  reached  a  sufficient  mental,  moral,  and 
physical  development  the  enlightened  nations  can 
exist  as  a  full  grown  man  may,  without  further  de- 
velopment of  such  character.  The  man  struggles 
with  obstacles  until  he  is  learned  and  rich,  when  he 
settles  down  to  enjoyment  and  takes  time  for  more 
purely  intellectual  and  moral  ease.  The  enlight- 
ened nations  have  raised  agriculture  to  its  highest 
development.  The  diet  of  these  nations  is  now  far 
'  *  advance  of  that  of  the  man  lying  on  his  back 
under  the  bread-fruit  tree,  and  their  development  is 


I58        THE    NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

much  greater  mentally.  Wars  grow  less  and  more 
unfashionable,  and  the  prospect  now  is  that  the  en- 
lightened nations  have  conquered  epidemics.  The 
logical  consequence  is  clear.  The  enlightened  na- 
tions do  not  need  alcohol.  Inebriety  must  be  cured. 
There  is  no  more  need  of  prescribing  any  daily 
moderate  quantity  of  alcohol  for  healing  people 
than  there  is  for  advising  an  occasional  duel  because 
wars  are  a  part  of  civilized  history.  I  do  not  mean 
to  say  that  the  day  of  abstinence  from  war,  or  alco- 
hol, or  other  great  evils,  has  arrived.  I  am  simply 
suggesting  the  relation  of  these  things  to  human 
progress  and  indicating  the  final  result.  To  me  the 
lines  I  have  pointed  out  seem  clear.  I  think  the 
explanation  makes  plain  the  true  relations  of  good 
and  evil  in  this  world  of  human  development.  Con- 
quering evil  underlies  human  development. 

Dr.  Duckworth,  in  order  to  bring  about  temper- 
ate drinking  or  to  insure  the  adoption  of  his  stand- 
ard of  moderation,  proposes  to  educate  young  peo- 
ple, as  a  part  of  their  school  training,  that  alcohol 
in  small  quantities  is  harmless  and  useful,  but  its 
dangers  depend  upon  taking  large  quantities.  I 
confess  surprise  at  this  proposition  from  so  learned 
a  medical  man.  Certainly  Dr.  Duckworth  would 
not  give  such  advice  were  he  more  thoughtful. 
These  facts  as  he  proposes  to  teach  them  are  partly 
true.  It  is  true  that  if  any  person  is  positively  lim- 
ited to  one  and  one-half  ounces  of  liquor  daily  for  a 
life  time,  no  harm  will  come  of  it  ;  but  education 
will  never  bring  about  such  a  result.  Young  per- 


THE   TEMPERATE   USE   OF   ALCOHOL.        159 

sons,  eight  out  of  ten,  who  adopt  the  practice 
of  taking  this  moderate  quantity  will  shortly  be  vic- 
tims of  inebriety.  A  craving  for  liquor  will  be  set 
up  and  more  will  be  taken.  In  a  few  months,  more 
or  less,  these  persons  will  be  inebriates.  Education 
will  not  bring  about  this  result.  In  short,  if  the 
young  people  of  a  community  adopt  such  a  course, 
within  a  year  nothing  but  imprisonment  and  sur- 
veillance will  keep  them  from  drinking  alcohol  as 
the  drunkard  drinks  it. 

Education  does  not  control  the  will.  The  bright- 
est minds,  the  greatest  intellects,  the  virtuous,  the 
godlv,  are  alike  brought  low  bv  alcohol,  no  matter 
how  small  the  beginning.  It  destroys  the  will,  or 
overcomes  it  by  a  mure  powerful  craving  for  drink. 
It  is  the  craving  for  alcohol  that  keeps  up  the 
drunkenness  of  the  inebriate.  It  is  probably  n< 
the  result  of  viciousness  or  lack  of  early  education 
on  the  subject  of  the  evil  effects  of  alcohol. 

But  I  do  not  deny  that  there  are  moderate 
drinkers.  I  claim,  however,  that  these  people  are 
all  moderate -drinking  inebriates  if  they  drink 
habitually,  or  every  day,  or  if  they  take  alcohol 
regularly  with  meals.  If  a  person  begins  taking 
one  and  one-half  ounces  of  alcohol  with  daily 
meals  and  continues  the  practice  a  few  months,  he 
may  observe  the  following  results  :  If  he  omits  the 
alcohol  for  a  day  he  will  miss  it.  He  will  feel  a 
~--\ving  for  something.  His  digestion  and  strength 
will  be  below  normal.  This  means  that  the  diges- 
tive organs  and  nervous  system  are  educated  to 


,6o        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OE   INEBRIETY. 

1  1 

digest  food  under  ^f^^A!^c  „. 
If  the  alcohol  be  ^todraW^     ff    f orce 
general    physiological    'ae^U*his  extent  such  a  per- 
dirninished  accor       -  .  OC4-;nn  mav  recover  its 

nn  is  an  inebriate.     His  digestion    itiay 
'  u  ;"  .     .-  .._:f   4-v,^  P! r.ohol  is  abstain 

•  is  gone  the 


, 

and   there    is   a    method    of    mak  ng 

method  is  not  by  cdu«t,  -;  ^  ^  ^dants  of 
Prayers,  b)'  control  of  ,.  hej     •    -^^   ^ 

inebriates    may   be    ..,.,;   HL  akohoi,  with 

others  can  be.     No  nation  ^  can  ad°P  ^  ^ 

necessary  ^^'^en  a  nation  proceeds 


nece  en  a  ntion  proc 

^ws  of  natural  ^7^  Jural  selection  proceeds 
to  drink  pcnson  _  tiie  aw  ^^  &  d 

by  its  own  method  to  res  ^  ^  kw 

of  moderate  drinker^    ineP^  ^  .nebn. 

as  follows:    Generat.on  a.        ;-  But  as  the 

ates,  because  drinking  causes  mebnetyons  ^  feorn| 

drinking   proceeds   an  S  ison.     In  time 

nature  creates  a  tolerance  to  *e  p^  «£  ^ 
there  will  arrive  a  generatic     w^  of  a  crav. 

moderately  without  causmg  d  unk  ^  ^ 

ing>  because  hered.y  h       tran^  ^ 

certain  degree  ofl-     an  ducing  a  class 

" 


doub,,e» 


THE   TEMPERATE    USE    OF    ALCOHOL.        161 

people  who  do  drink  his  moderate  dose  of  alcohol 
daily.  Perhaps  they  do  so  continuously.  Every 
nation  can  furnish  such  a  class  after  many  years  of 
the  general  consumption  of  alcohol. 

Suppose  Dr.  Duckworth  were  to  educate  school 
children  to  understand  that  having  smallpox,  scarlet 
fever,  and  other  germ  diseases  moderately  is  far 
safer  than  having  more  severe  attacks.  This  would 
be  true,  but  would  be  of  no  use. 

But  nature  produces  a  class  of  people  who  have 
all  these  diseases  lightlv,  or  are  entirely  exempt. 
One  attack  of  a  disease  gives  immunity  from  further 
attacks  of  the  same  disease.  In  time,  heredity,  by 
transmitting  this  acquired  tolerance  to  the  poison 
of  a  disease,  creates  a  class  who  are  partially  or 
wholly  exempt,  or  who  can  indulge  with  moderation. 


VANDERBILT  UNIVERSITY 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  INEBRIATE  STOMACH. 

THE  stomach  and  its  accessories  of  nerves  and 
nerve  centers  are  of  great  importance,  whether 
considered  from  the  physical  or  moral  standpoint. 
The  ancients  believed  that  the  genius  of  life  inhab- 
ited this  organ,  or,  rather,  the  entire  abdominal 
region.  This  idea  arose  naturally  from  the  sensa- 
tions of  hunger  and  thirst,  which  feelings  are  re- 
ferred, subjectively,  to  the  stomach. 

Hunger  is  the  great  fundamental  desire  or  pas- 
sion of  the  living  animal  kingdom,  if  we  include  the 
differentiated  feeling  of  thirst.  It  would  seem  to  be 
true  that  all  human  desires,  relating  to  life,  to 
society,  to  business,  to  all  that  stimulates  people  to 
earn  a  living,  to  live  well,  gain  fame,  wealth,  and 
station  —  all  these  desires  are  only  differentiations 
of  and  developments  from  the  original  and  primal 
feeling  of  hunger.  In  order  to  live,  all  living  things 
must'  have  food.  The  absence  of  food  creates  the 
feeling,  the  desire,  the  distress,  or  the  hunger,  as 
it  may  be  ;  this  great  inherent  necessity  and  in- 
herent sensation,  when  experienced,  will  start  the 
lion  out  in  quest  of  prey  ;  animals  of  great  and  low 
degree,  of  whatever  order,  genera,  or  species,  must 

162 


THE    INEBRIATE    STOMACH.  163 

make  the  search   for  food  when   hunger  makes  the 
demand. 

It  is  provident  to  save  a  little  something  for  a 
"  rainy  day."  This  is  one  of  the  common  axioms 
of  the  conduct  of  life.  It  is  also  one  of  the  first 
lessons  learned  bv  that  division  of  the  animal  king- 
dom which  can  boast  of  a  cerebrum.  Hunger,  it  is 
true,  can  exist  in  species  which  may  not  ha\ 
stomach,  and  that  may  be  so  undifferentiated  as  to 
have  little  other  than  a  nerve  center  controlling  an 
amceboid  movement  into  space  in  a  blind  search 
for  something  that  can  be  used  as  food  ;  but  wher- 
ever such  animal  exists,  having  the  power  to  swal- 
low its  kin  or  enemies,  with  a  nerve  centre  to  control 
the  function,  there  is  also  the  feeling  of  bun;; 

I  am  aware  that  the  same  substratum   of  hunger 
and   thirst   is   not   in   real  it  v  located  in  the  stomach. 
The  sensation,   however,    is   referred   to  this  region. 
The  human  affections  are  referred   to   the   region  of 
the  heart  ;   but  both  these  fundamental  passions  be- 
long to  the  sympathetic  nervous   svstem   and   m 
centres.      It  is  true,  however,  that  originally  the  - 
sation  of  hunger  was  more  nearly  associated  with  the 
stomach  ;   it  is  a  fact  now  that  the  feeling  originates 
from  an  empty  stomach   and  abstinence  from   fo< 
It  is  confessed,  also,  that  the  feeling  of  hunger  and 
the  inhibition,  or  cessation  of  the  feeling  after  tak- 
ing  food,  were   originally  taught  the   nerve   cen 
by  the  stomach.     The  nerve  centres  were  educated 
to  feel  hungry  by  an  empty   stomach.     Thev  v 
trained  to  revert  to  a  condition  of  inactivity  durinir 


164        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

the  period  of  digestion.  But  it  is  true  that  after 
this  education  is  accomplished  the  nerve  centres 
will  automatically  assume  the  condition  which  speaks 
hunger  to  consciousness,  even  if  the  stomach  of  the 
animal  is  removed.  It  is  only  by  eating  or  satiety, 
over  eating,  and  nausea  succeeded  by  abstinence 
from  food,  that  the  regular  and  automatic  periodic- 
ity of  hunger  occurs,  or  was  originally  caused. 
Sickness  relating  particularly  to  the  stomach  will 
prevent  this  action  of  the  nerve  centres  ;  which 
shows  conclusively  where  the  centres  obtained  their 
education  and  under  what  dominion  they  still  exist. 

We  find  that  in  civilized  life  the  passion  of 
hunger  is  a  developed,  regular,  and  ethical  sensa- 
tion. The  custom  being  three  meals  daily,  it  fol- 
lows that  the  nerve  centres  are  educated  to  auto- 
matically call  for  the  morning,  noon,  and  evening 
repasts.  The  savage  and  the  wild  beasts  gorge 
when  they  can  and  suffer  the  pangs  of  hunger  when 
they  must. 

But  I  may  refer  to  the  relations  of  ethics  and 
hunger.  A  beast  of  prey  certainly  cares  very  little 
about  what  or  who  may  be  its  victim.  Wild  beasts 
will  destroy  any  animal  for  food  when  pressed  by 
hunger,  except  their  own  offspring  and  associates  ; 
but  they  will  consume  such  of  these  as  may  by  acci- 
dent receive  an  injury.  Ethics  is  at  a  very  low  ebb 
among  the  several  tribes  of  cannibals  ;  but  cannibal- 
ism among  the  highly  civilized  and  cultured  is  not 
unknown,  when  starvation  has  dictated  the  moral 
conduct.  I  mention  these  facts  merely  to  indicate 


THE   INEBRIATE   STOMACH.  i65 

jr  exercised  by  the  stomach  and  its  associ- 
ate nerve  centres,  under  the  press  of  passion,  over 
the  mind,  over  ethics,  and  over  the  moral  conduct  of 
the  individual. 

It  is  well  known  that  what  we  acquire  last  in  our 
Iranian  development  we  lose  first  when  adversity 
overtakes  us.  In  relation  to  society  and  human 
ethics,  when  disaster,  loss  of  property,  or  los- 
reputation  occurs,  our  altruism,  or  regard  for  the 
rights  of  others,  leaves  us.  Starvation  takes  away 
human  regard  for  other  human  life. 

What  wonder  is  it,  then,  that  the  passion  for 
drink  —  the  craving  for  liquor,  a  disease  of  the 
nerve  centres,  or  a  passion  given  them  by  a  de- 
bauched stomach  which  has  been  periodically  pois- 
oned by  alcohol  —  what  wonder  is  it,  when  the 
nerve  centres,  automatically  responding  to  the 
period  of  this  automatic*  craving,  cause  the  inebriate- 
to  lose  his  self  control,  his  love  of  life,  of  sobriety, 
his  self  respect  ;  and,  at  the  demand  of  his  stomach 
and  its  accessory  nerve  centres,  to  sink  into  a  fit  of 
alcoholic  degradation  ? 

But  this  brings  up  the  general  question  of  the  in- 
fluence of  the  stomach  and  its  nerve  centres  upon 
'ic  mind  and  human  conduct  in  disease  of  tl; 
organs.  It  is  conceded  that  this  is  one  of  the  causes 
of  insanity.  All  men  know  the  influence  exerted 
over  the  temper  and  conduct  by  dyspepsia.  In  my 
opinion  there  is  no  sensation  so  unbearable  with 
any  degree  of  fortitude  or  which  so  unfits  one  for 
all  appreciation  of  life  and  the  glory  of  earth  as 


1 66        THE    NON-HEREDITY    (>F    INEBRIETY. 

nausea.  The  sea-sick  passenger  retires  to  his  room. 
As  the  nausea  increases  his  ambition  of  life  and  re- 
gard for  life  fade  away.  He  recks  not  if  the  ship 
becomes  swamped,  nor  fears  he  if  the  storms  rage, 
nor  however  great  the  danger.  Nausea  is  the  ex- 
treme of  hunger.  One  converts  the  cultured  aes- 
thetic, refined  man  or  woman,  into  a  fiend  who  will 
range  the  earth  like  a  beast  of  prey,  without  con- 
science, without  regard  for  human  or  other  life  ; 
while  the  other  extreme  prostrates  its  victims  with 
the  paralytic  supineness  of  despair. 

With  this  general  knowledge  of  the  relation  of 
the  stomach  to  the  human  mind  and  conduct,  I  will 
now  refer  to  the  inebriate  stomach,  or  to  inebriety 
considered  from  the  standpoint  of  the  stomach  and 
its  accessory  nerves.  In  this  study  I  do  not  pro- 
pose to  consider  the  question  of  the  remote  diseases 
produced  by  alcohol  upon  the  coats,  glands,  or 
tissues  of  the  stomach.  These  conditions  are  results 
and  not  causes  of  the  craving  for  drink.  Their 
existence  does  not  cause  drunkenness,  nor  can  their 
cure  prevent  it  ;  but  the  cure  of  inebriety  can  be 
accomplished,  no  matter  in  what  pathological  con- 
dition the  stomach  may  be  as  a  result  of  alcoholic 
poisoning.  But  I  wish  to  learn  the  real  relation  of 
the  stomach  and  its  nerve  centres  to  the  phenomena 
of  inebriety  —  the  craving  for  drink,  the  debauch, 
the  succeeding  disgust  for  liquor,  the  period  of 
sobriety,  and  the  returning  craving  for  drink. 

I  have  frequently  stated  that  there  is  no  cause 
for  inebriety  but  alcohol.  No  other  disease  is  in- 


THE    IXKBRIATK    STOMACH.  if>7 

ebriety.  No  heredity  or  other  disease  can  cause  or 
is  inebriety.  Any  disease,  or  perhaps  anything 
else,  may  lead  a  person  to  begin  drinking,  but  no 
agent  except  alcohol  can  cause  inebriety,  nor  will 
the  cure  of  any  other  disease  associated  with  it  or 
caused  by  alcohol,  as  a  result  of  inebriety,  neces- 
sarily exert  any  influence  \vhatever,  either  for  or 
against  the  craving  for  drink. 

In  the  majority  of  cases,  when  a  person  begins 
to  drink  he  soon  experiences  a  debauch.  In  many 
cases  the  first  drink  is  followed  by  a  drunken  fit. 
This  is  especially  true  with  those  people  who  v. 
made  inebriates  during  childhood  by  the  use  of 
liquor.  This  debauch  is  usually  followed  by  a  drink 
or  two  the  next  day  to  steady  the  poisoned  nerye 
centres.  But  there  is  a  loss  of  appetite  and  of  di- 
gestion, lasting  a  day  or  two,  while  in  all  cas^ 
nauseating  disgust  for  liquor  is  the  result.  The 
stomach  and  its  nerye  centres  have  received  their 
first  lesson. 

Perhaps,  now,  the  coming  inebriate  resolves  upon 
reform  ;  his  remorse  prompts  him  to  say  that  he 
ill  never  drink  again.  The  irritated  stomach  and 
x  erves  protest  by  the  pain  of  atavistic  change  ;  ex- 
ternal influences  urge  upon  the  mind  the  necessity 
of  good  resolutions. 

This  causes  a  period  of  sobriety.  But  the  time 
may  come  when  all  this  is  forgotten.  There  may 
be  no  craving  for  liquor,  but  an  occasion  arises,  so- 
cial or  otherwise,  when  the  debauch  is  repeated. 
The  stomach  and  nerves  are  put  through  another 


1 68        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

experience  of  acute  poisoning,  with  the  usual 
method  of  a  nauseating  recovery. 

After  a  few  such  repetitions  a  habit  is  estab- 
lished and  the  inebriate  education  of  the  stomach 
and  nerves  is  accomplished. 

The  education  of  all  nerve  centres  is  accom- 
plished in  general,  as  well  as  in  any  special  manner, 
by  frequent  repetition  of  any  action.  Education  of 
any  character  is  a  product  of  the  same  repetition. 
Whatever  is  acquired  by  any  nerve  centre,  or  by  the 
whole  mind,  is  learned  by  this  same  method.  We 
gain  the  knowledge  of  any  act,  any  science,  or  the 
relations  of  any  fact  by  repetition.  When  a  child 
learns  the  alphabet  or  the  multiplication  table,  he 
masters  it  by  repeating  the  letters  in  connection 
with  printed  or  written  type,  and  by  repeating  the 
table.  Committing  a  text  to  memory  is  accom- 
plished by  repeated  readings. 

The  converse  side  of  this  fact  is  that  the  repeti- 
tion of  any  act,  or  of  any  impression  whatever,  must 
educate  certain  corresponding  nerve  centres  after 
this  given  manner.  When  the  centres  are  thus  edu- 
cated and  begin  action  and  conduct  for  themselves, 
or  when  they  act  at  all,  they  act  after  the  manner 
of  their  education.  They  will  perform  their  func- 
tions of  life  as  they  have  been  educated  to  act  and 
will  act  in  no  other  way  unless  they  first  re- 
ceive the  new  form  of  training  or  education.  We 
all  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  unlearn  anything  we 
have  been  educated  to  understand  and  to  put  a  new 


THE    INEBRIATE    STOMACH.  169 

learning  in  its  place.  Old  ideas  are  rooted  and 
they  are  difficult  to  remove. 

Repetition  of  the  act  of  drinking  alcohol  creates 
an  education  of  the  stomach  and  its  nerves.  They 
are  taught  to  experience  a  periodical  craving  for 
liquor,  a  debauch  more  or  less  prolonged,  a  suc- 
ceeding nausea  and  disgust,  a  rejection  of  drink,  and 
a  period  of  total  abstinence. 

When  this  education,  or  training,  or  inebriety  is 
established,  the  action  of  the  stomach  and  nerves 
has  become  automatic.  The  meaning  of  this  is 
that  the  nerves  act  after  the  manner  of  their  educa- 
tion without  prompting.  They  adopt  this  method 
or  conduct  as  a  part  of  their  functions,  and  when 
they  act  at  all  will  exhibit  this  automatism  or  habit. 

The  course  of  inebriety  is  now  established.  The 
conduct  of  the  stomach  and  nerves  and  of  the  per- 
son now  exhibit  the  characteristics  and  the  life  of 
the  inebriate.  The  stomach  is  an  inebriate  as  well 
as  is  the  individual.  The  result  of  this  condition  is 
periodical  drunkenness,  resulting  from  an  appetite 
or  a  craving  for  liquor.  l3ut  one  of  the  most  re- 
•arkable  features  of  the  inebriate  stomach  is  the 
fc.ct  that  the  automatism  of  the  inebriac  education 
will  cause  the  phenomena  of  inebriety,  periodically, 
even  if  the  alcohol  is  abstained  from.  The  attack 
will  begin  with  loss  of  appetite,  indigestion,  and 
seemingly  entire  cessation  of  the  natural  functions 
of  the-  stomach  and  nerves.  If  food  is  eaten  it  will 
he  distress  incident  to  indigestion,  and  is 


17°        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

usually  rejected  by  the  stomach.  There  is  more  or 
less  pain  in  the  gastric  region,  while  the  duration 
and  general  symptoms  resemble  an  attack  or  a  par- 
oxysm of  inebriety.  The  pain  and  indigestion  will 
disappear  if  alcohol  is  taken  at  any  time  during  the 
attack.  But  if  the  inebriate  abstains  by  effort  of  his 
will,  the  natural  course  of  the  paroxysm  will  con- 
tinue. At  the  proper  time  the  disgust  and  nausea 
will  appear,  with  more  or  less  corresponding  disturb- 
ance of  the  brain  ;  there  will  be  a  sleepless  night 
or  two  ;  then,  in  the  usual  manner,  the  functions  of 
the  stomach  will  be  restored,  and  stomach  and 
nerves  will  resume  the  natural  order  of  things  be- 
longing to  the  period  of  sobriety. 

This  is  the  experience  of  nearly  every  case  of 
inebriety,  though  often  overlooked.  Many  inebri- 
ates, struggling  for  reform  by  effort  of  will,  are 
conquered  by  the  periodical  paroxysms  of  the  stom- 
ach. When  the  fit  of  pain  and  indigestion  comes 
on,  the  inebriate  may  resist  for  a  day  or  two,  but 
generally  he  yields  to  the  demand  to  "take  a  little 
wine  for  the  stomach's  sake."  The  wine  restores 
his  appetite  and  digestion  ;  but  this  only  prolongs 
the  agony.  The  inebriate  knows  very  well  that, 
resist  as  he  may,  if  he  drink  at  all  he  must  drink 
to  debauchery  and  until  his  stomach  will  no  longer 
retain  the  poison  ;  nausea,  vomiting,  tremens,  delir- 
ium, and  remorse  end  the  paroxysm.  Any  escape 
from  this  formula  is  an  exception  to  the  rule. 

This   is  the   period  when,  in  extreme  cases,  the 


THE    INEBRIATE   STOMACH.  i?1 

feature  of  delirium  tremens  occurs.  This  happens 
always  in  greater  or  less  degree  in  every  paroxysm 
of  drinking.  It  also  occurs  to  a  degree  in  the  at- 
tacks of  automatic  stomach  inebriety,  even  when  no 
alcohol  is  taken. 

The  clinical  history  of  an  inebriate  generally 
shows  in  relation  to  the  stomach  and  its  nerves  that 
several  vears  of  drinking  may  be  required  to  estab- 
lish an  automatic  inebriety  of  the  stomach.  During 
the  first  few  years  the-  stomach  maintains  its  integ- 
rity to  all  appearance  during  the  period  of  sobriety. 
In  these  cases  the  craving  for  liquor  does  not  ap- 
parently occur  until  the  first  drink  is  taken.  This 
sets  the  whole  machinery  of  inebriety  in  motion 
and  initiates  a  paroxysm.  The  result  is  a  fit  of 
drunkenness.  But  after  a  few  years  the  victim 
pericnces  what  are  called  "bilious  attacks."  He 
will  be  suddenly  taken  with  painful  digestion  ;  per- 
haps his  stomach  will  refuse  food  altogether.  If 
food  is  taken  it  does  not  digest  ;  a  fermentation 
with  acidity  and  gas  formation  will  result.  If  the 
patient  does  not  drink  he  sometimes  consults  a 
physician,  who  treats  him  for  dyspepsia  or  bilious- 
ness. The  careful  observer  will  note  in  these  ca 
that  if  no  food  is  taken  there  will  be  no  bilious- 
ness ;  also,  that  at  the  termination  of  about  the 
duration  of  the  usual  drunken  fit  the  stomach,  after 
rejecting  all  food  and  drink  for  a  day  or  two,  will 
regain  its  accustomed  usefulness. 

This   automatic   stomach   inebriety  will   continue 


I72        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

with  the  inebriate  until  his  inebriety  is  cured.  No 
matter  if  he  abstains  from  drink  for  a  year,  he  will 

J 

experience  his  "bilious"  attacks  as  regularly  as  he 
formerly  drank.  I  have  seen  hundreds  of  such 
men  who  were  settled  in  the  belief  that  they  were 
victims  of  malaria,  or  cancer,  or  dyspepsia,  or 
liver  disease,  or  other  organic  lesion,  and  who  con- 
sulted many  physicians  for  relief.  Of  course  stom- 
ach inebriety  may  be  associated  with  organic  disease 
of  the  digestive  or  other  organs,  but  the  symptoms 
of  the  inebriety  —  the  periodicity,  the  stomach  pain, 
the  indigestion,  the  succeeding  vomiting,  the  crav- 
ing for  liquor,  the  recovery,  all  with  or  without 
treatment,  —  these  symptoms  are  entirely  distinct 
from  and  independent  of  the  symptoms  of  any 
organic  lesion  which  may  be  present. 

In  later  years  and  after  his  stomach  and  its 
nerves  have  been  taught  so  thoroughly  the  lesson  of 
inebriety  that  it  is  a  second  nature,  the  inebriate 
will  attribute  his  drinking  to  his  dyspepsia  and 
stomach  troubles.  He  is  conscious  that  during  the 
period  of  stomach  sobriety  and  good  behavior  he 
has  no  craving  for  liquor  ;  that  as  soon  as  the  fit  of 
indigestion  attacks  him  drinking  will  relieve  him 
and  re-establish  for  a  time  the  functions  of  the 
digestion.  For  this  reason  he  thinks  he  could  resist 
the  craving  for  liquor  if  his  stomach  were  all  right. 
In  a  sense  he  is  right,  but  in  reality  he  is  not, 
because  his  so-called  dyspepsia  is  a  result  of  long 
continued  inebriety,  and  is  caused  by  an  inebriate 
stomach, 


THK    1XKBRIATE    STOMACH.  173 

The  cure  of  inebriety  cures  the  inebriate  stomach. 
Dyspepsia  of  this  character  is  no  longer  experienced. 
If,  however,  there  is  organic  lesion  or  other  dis- 
ease of  the  digestive  organs,  these  things  will  pursue 
their  symptomatic  course  without  change. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 
THE  PATHOLOGY  OF  INEBRIETY. 

FNEBRIETY  means  a  lesion  of  the  nerve  centres 
J-  of  a  peculiar  character,  and,  perhaps,  of  the 
cells  and  nuclei  of  other  tissues,  which  is  caused  by 
alcohol.  The  symptoms  caused  by  this  lesion  are  a 
craving  for  alcoholic  drink,  which  is  periodical  in 
character  and  which  leads  to  times  of  drunkenness, 
followed  by  seasons  of  total  abstinence  and  sobriety. 
I  regard  the  period  of  sobriety  as  a  part  of  the  dis- 
ease, or  as  a  symptom  of  the  disease. 

The  lesion  of  the  tissue  cells  and  nuclei  is  the 
immediate  and  direct  effect  of  alcoholic  poisoning. 
It  is  true  that  there  are  further  and  remote  lesions 
due  to  alcoholic  poisoning,  as  various  degenera- 
tions of  organic  nature,  of  nerve  centres,  nerves,  and 
other  organs  ;  but  these  lesions  form  no  part  of  the 
craving  for  drink,  or  the  inebriety.  The  craving  is 
due  to  the  law  that  a  poisoned  tissue  demands  more 
of  the  poison,  or  its  continued  or  periodical  presence. 

The  lesion  of  inebriety  is  not  demonstrable  by 
microscopic  tests  or  examination.  The  remote 
lesions,  or  the  alcoholic  degenerations,  are  verifiable 
by  the  microscope. 

That  alcoholic  poisoning,  however,  produces  a 
craving  for  liquor  which  a  majority  of  alcoholic  in- 


THE    PATHOLOGY   <>!•    INEBRIETY.  175 

cbriates  arc  unable  to  resist  is  a  fact  of  observation 
and  testimony.  Some  inebriates  are  depraved  mor- 
ally and  do  not  desire  reform,  but  the  greater 
number  most  earnestly  desire  to  be  free  from  the 
bonds  of  drink  ;  although  in  rare  cases  only  does 
the  will  succeed  in  resisting  the  importunate  and 
periodical  craving  for  alcohol. 

The  questions  to  determine  in  a  study  of  inebri- 
ety are  : 

(1)  The   character  of   the  lesion   caused   bv   the 
poison. 

(2)  The    cause    of    the    inebriate's    craving    for 
liquor. 

(3)  The   periodical   or   rhythmical   character  of 
the  craving  and  other  symptoms. 

As  I  said,  there  is  no  method  of  establishing  the 
science  of  the  pathology  of  inebriety  except  by  de- 
duction of  special  facts  from  established  general 
laws  of  poisoning  in  relation  to  the  general  laws  of 
biology.  These  general  laws  of  poisoning  I  will 
state  to  be  as  follows  : 

(1)  Any    given    poison,    taken     habitually,    in 
quantities  not  large  enough  to  cause  death,  results 
in  causing  a  tolerance  to  the  poison  on  the  part  of 
the  poisoned  tissues,  and  a  demand  on  their  part  for 
the  presence  of  the  drug. 

(2)  When  a  person  accustomed  to  the  use  of  a 
poison  abstains  from  any  cause,  the  tolerance  to  the 
drug,  acquired  by  chronic  poisoning,  as  well  as  the 
craving  for  the  drug,  disappears. 

The   action   of   all   poisons  proves  these    propo- 


176        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

sitions,  or,  these  propositions  are  general  inductive 
laws  founded  on  the  verified  facts  of  the  action  of 
the  poisons. 

No  fact  of  poisoning  is  better  known,  or  under- 
stood, or  generally  observed  than  is  the  fact  that 
the  habitual  use  of  morphine  creates  a  tolerance  to 
the  drug  and  a  craving  for  its  presence.  People 
who  take  morphine  necessarily  begin  with  the  aver- 
age medicinal  dose  —  say  one-quarter  of  a  grain. 
From  this  small  beginning  the  inebriate  gains  such 
a  tolerance  to  the  poison  that  half  a  drachm  may  be 
taken  at  a  dose.  By  the  same  rule  inebriates  take 
large  quantities  of  ether,  chloral,  hasheesh,  and  other 
poisons. 

The  virtue  of  inoculation  for  the  prevention  of 
disease  depends  upon  the  law  of  developing  toler- 
ance to  poisons.  The  virus  inoculated  is  a  milder 
type  of  the  microbe  causing  the  disease,  which 
furnishes  a  less  quantity  of  the  poison  of  the  same 
kind.  This  smaller  quantity  causes  the  establish- 
ment of  a  tolerance  to  the  poison  of  the  disease, 
and  thus  prevents  the  disease. 

The  second  general  law  of  poisoning  is  also  a 
fact  of  observation.  A  morphine  user  who  has  ab- 
stained from  the  drug  for  a  sufficient  time  will  lose 
the  power  of  tolerating  the  usual  poisonous  dose. 
The  immunity  from  disease,  given  by  vaccination 
or  by  an  attack  of  disease,  is  lost  after  a  longer  or 
shorter  time.  Vaccination,  as  is  well  known,  must 
be  frequently  repeated  in  order  to  be  efficacious. 

It  is  true  that  in   disease  poisoning  the  craving 


THE    PATHOLOGY   OF    IXKBKIETY.  177 

for  the  poison  is  not  observed  ;  but  that  could  not 
be  expected.  In  creating  inebriety  the  one  de- 
bauch, or  one  dose  of  morphine,  is  not  sufficient  to 
cause  the  lesion  which  creates  the  craving.  One 
attack  of  a  disease  creates  an  immunity,  and  one 
debauch,  or  one  dose  of  morphine,  will  create  a 
corresponding  tolerance  ;  but  in  the  use  of  these 
poisons  a  repetition  of  the  alcohol  or  morphine  is 
indulged  in  voluntarily,  until  the  condition  is  created 
which  does  demand  the  craving  for  the  dm. 
far  as  is  known,  people  do  not  voluntarily  take  a 
disease  more  than  once  as  a  diversion. 

The  explanation  by  the  general  known  laws  of 
biology  must  account  now  for  these  phenomena  of 
poisoning.  An  understanding  of  how  the  tolerance 
to  poison  is  established  will  show  the  character  of 
the  lesion  caused  by  alcohol  in  inebriety,  which  is 
the  first  proposition  for  consideration. 

This  question  necessarily  brings  us  face  to  face 
with  the  one  of  immunity  from  disease,  acquired  by 
having  a  disease  naturally,  or  by  vaccination  or  in- 
oculation. The  last  suggestion  made  on  this  ques- 
tion by  pathologists  is  that  of  Metschnikoff,  who 
has  formulated  a  theory  of  immunity,  based  on  the 
fact  that  in  disease  himself  and  other  observers 
have  seen,  the  white  blood  corpuscles  absorb  or 
consume  the  microbes  of  the  disease.  These  organ- 
isms, the  white  blood  corpuscles,  are  called  phago- 
cytes, and  this  theory  is  the  phagocytic  theory. 

Of  course,  this  observation  proves  nothing  except 
that  the  microbe  enters  the  white  blood  corpuscles. 


1 7**        THK    XON   HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

If  by  this  means  disease  is  brought  to  an  end  and 
immunity  secured  to  an  animal  in  relation  to  any 
given  disease,  then  how  did  the  white  blood  corpus- 
cles acquire  their  immunity  ?  These  organisms  are 
subject  to  the  same  biological  laws  governing 
nutrition,  multiplication,  and  special  function  and 
development  that  govern  all  other  living  things.  If 
there  is  some  other  method  than  this  by  which  the 
white  corpuscles  get  an  immunity,  perhaps  it  also 
governs  all  other  cells,  tissues,  organs,  and  animals. 
At  any  rate,  the  phagocytic  theory  of  Metschnikoff 
cannot  stand. 

But  all  organisms  —  cells,  tissues,  organs,  ani- 
mals, and  plants — are  subject  to  the  law  of  variation 
or  adaptation.  A  change  of  any  organism  what- 
ever, in  relation  to  its  environment,  must  result  in 
variation  of  its  structure  and  physiology,  which 
adapts  it  to  the  change  of  environment ;  such  varia- 
tion and  change  must  result  in  the  death  of  the 
organism.  When  any  organism  is  poisoned,  there- 
fore, it  must,  if  habitually  poisoned,  acquire  a  resist- 
ance or  tolerance  through  variation,  or  a  change  in 
type  of  its  structure  and  function. 

The  law  of  variation  and  adaptation,  or  change 
in  type  of  structure,  is  a  biological  law  which,  as  a 
factor  of  Charles  Darwin's  grand  generalization 
known  as  natural  selection,  is  known  to  be  a  prop- 
erty of  all  organic  structure  and  organisms.  It  is  this 
law  of  variation  and  adaptation  which  gives  Met- 
schnikoff's  phagocytes  a  sufficient  immunity  to 
enable  them  to  make  a  meal  of  virulent  microbes  ; 


THE    PATHOLOGY   OF    [NEBRIETY.  "79 

it  is  also  this  law  which  gives  the  morphine  eater  an 
increased  tolerance  to  the  poison  ;  which  brings 
disease  to  an  end  after  a  definite  duration  of  time, 
and  which,  also,  gives  immunity  to  disease,  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  ptomaine  poisoning  of  the  microbe. 

The  pathological  lesion  of  inebriety,  then,  is  a 
variation  of  the  tissue  cells,  notably  of  the  cerebro- 
spinal  system;  which  change  in  type  of  the  cell, 
though  microscopically  and  macroscopically  un- 
known, is  now  fully  verified  by  deduction  to  exist. 
There  is  no  other  way  to  account  for  the  action  of 
alcohol  as  a  poison  and  for  the  symptoms  of  in- 
ebriety—  the  craving  and  the  periodicity  of  the 
paroxysms  of  debauchery,  with  the  periods  of 
sobriety;  all  of  which  can  be  readily  explained  by 
this  and  associated  verified  biological  laws. 

A  logical  question  here  arises  :  "What  is  it  that 
determines  the  variation  ;  what  originates  the  in- 
creased energy  ?  Individual  energy,  activity,  and 
development  depend  upon  opposition  ;  there  is  very 
little  energy  without  the  stimulus  of  conflict.  Tli< 
nations  have  made  the  greatest  advance  which  had 
the  most  formidable  obstacles  to  overcome.  The 
biography  of  great  men  tells  much  of  the  story  of 
poverty  and  self-education.  The  stimulus  of  oppo- 
sition or  resistance  seems  to  be  a  condition  of 
organic  activity.  The  activity  in  relation  to  the 
opposing  force  is  of  the  character  of  resistance. 
Something  to  do  means  something  to  overcome. 
Work  means  resisting  something,  or  laboring,  or 
expending  energy  in  resistance  to  something.  There 


180       THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

is  no  way  other  than  this  of  exciting  energy  or  of 
measuring  force,  except  by  comparison  with  resist- 
ing force. 

When  a  nerve  cell  encounters  alcohol  it  is  poi- 
soned ;  it  meets  a  force  opposed  to  its  functions, 
and  is  either  destroyed  or  is  stimulated  to  resist- 
ance. Its  functional  activity  is,  therefore,  increased. 
It  can  manifest  an  energized  activity  only  in  the  di- 
rection of  its  natural  physiology.  If  not  overcome 
by  the  poison,  then  the  increased  cell  activity  is 
shown  by  an  increase  of  its  special  function  and  by 
an  increase  of  its  general  functions  of  nutrition  and 
multiplication.  But  this  is  not  all  ;  there  is  an 
increased  energy  displayed  in  the  direction  of  devel- 
opment, which  development  in  the  cell  means  a 
variation  of  structure  that  enables  it  to  tolerate  to  a 
greater  extent  the  poisoning  of  alcohol.  It  is  an 
observed  fact  that  tolerance  to  alcohol  is  increased 
during  a  debauch.  The  inebriate,  when  he  begins 
a  debauch  after  a  period  of  sobriety,  has  lost,  to  a 
great  extent,  his  acquired  tolerance.  Very  likely  he 
will  drink  half  a  pint  of  whisky  during  an  evening, 
when  he  will  sink  into  a  comatose  sleep  for  the 
night.  Next  morning  his  craving  is  imperative  and 
the  tolerance  greatly  increased  ;  for  he  will  take  a 
half  pint  of  liquor  before  breakfast  without  drunk- 
enness, with  no  further  effect  than  to  satisfy  the 
craving  and  steady  his  nerves. 

The  second  question,  the  cause  of  the  inebriate's 
craving  and  its  periodical  character,  can  not  be  an- 
swered. We  understand  the  craving  to  be  the  de- 


TIIK    PATHOLOGY   OF    INEBRIETY,  ii 

mand  of  the  poisoned  cells  for  more  poison.  This 
demand  is  a  function  of  the  cells,  which  is  conveyed 
to  consciousness  in  the  same  manner  as  hunger  and 
thirst,  and  is  fully  as  imperative.  Hunger  and 
thirst  can  overcome  the  will,  the  moral  character, 
and  the  resistance  of  the  individual.  The  craving 
for  alcohol  is  no  less  powerful.  It  is  practically 
irresistible.  This  rule  holds  good  in  all  inebrieties, 
but  perhaps  is  most  intense  in  the  morphine  inebri- 
ate, who  will  not  hesitate  at  any  moral  or  other  ob- 
stacle in  the  way  of  his  supply  of  poison.  That  the 
craving  exists  is  a  fact  of  observation,  sufficiently 
verified  by  testimony  from  the  subjective  sicK 
the  question.  The  question  is,  why  do  poisoned 
cells  have  this  craving  ?  It  is  suggested  that  the 
increased  activity  of  the  cells,  in  the  direction  of 
resisting  the  poison,  should  create  a  disgust  instead 
of  a  craving  for  liquor. 

The  demand  for  alcohol  is  doubtless  clue  to  the 
pain  or  difficulty  of  variation  under  the  change  of 
environment  brought  about  by  withdrawal  of  the 
poison.  The  change  is  too  great  for  the  ability  of 
the  adaptation  required,  or  the  new  variation  that 
must  be  undergone.  The  cells  have  become  adap- 
ted by  variation  to  exist  and  carry  on  their  physi- 
ology, subject  to  poison.  The  latter  has  become  a 
factor  of  environment  ;  it  is,  therefore,  a  factor  of 
their  life,  since  life  is  an  adjustment  of  the  inner 
relations  of  things  to  those  of  the  environment. 
The  change  demanded  when  the  poison  is  removed 

imperative  and  difficult,  and  while  the  remote 


i8z        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

results  are  in  every  way  better,  the  change  is  never- 
theless difficult  and  more  or  less  painful. 

A  study  of  natural  selection,  so-called,  in  rela- 
tion to  social  life,  as  well  as  in  physiology  and 
pathology,  will  be  found  to  correspond  with  the 
rules  here  given  relating  to  increased  activity  under 
the  stimulus  of  antagonism,  to  a  demand  for  the  con- 
ditions which  have  caused  a  new  adaptation,  and  the 
difficulties  of  variation  as  well  as  of  a  new  adapta- 
tion, no  matter  how  much  better  the  remote  results 
may  be. 

The  drunkenness  of  inebriety  is  periodical  in 
character,  or  it  is  rhythmical,  like  all  other  phe- 
nomena of  life  and  nature.  It  is  true  that  in  many 
inebriates  the  rhythm  is  short  ;  in  some  it  is  so  very 
short  that  the  period  of  sobriety  is  difficult  to  ap- 
preciate ;  but  it  is,  nevertheless,  a  factor  of  all  cases 
of  inebriety.  The  duration  of  sobriety  may  last 
from  a  few  hours  to  a  few  weeks  or  several  months, 
or  even  two  or  three  years. 

The  average  duration  of  the  sober  period  in  the 
typical  inebriate  is  two  months.  During  this  period 
the  inebriate  is  a  total  abstainer  and  has  a  delusion 
that  he  is  reformed  and  will  never  drink  again. 
Clinical  history  shows,  however,  that  the  debauch, 
the  craving,  the  reform,  the  remorse,  and  period  of 
sobriety,  all  appear  at  the  appointed  time. 

There  is  no  more  satisfactory  method  of  account- 
ing for  this  phenomenon  than  the  explanation  given 
by  the  physiology  of  automatism,  which  I  have  de- 
scribed at  length  in  a  previous  chapter. 


THE    PATHOLOGY    OF    INEBRIETY.  183 

All  trades  are  learned  and  performed  under  these 
laws  of  automatism.  The  apprentice  makes  many 
tedious,  labored  efforts  to  adapt  mind  and  muscle  to 
perform  work  with  a  definite  object  and  end.  He  is 
being  educated  or  trained.  In  time,  when  his  trade 
is  learned,  he  performs  the  work  in  a  great  mea- 
sure without  conscious  volition.  The  piano  pla 
type-writer,  watchmaker,  as  well  as  all  other  workers 
go  through  this  experience.  When  they  have 
learned  their  specialty,  whatever  it  may  be,  the 
higher  brain  centres,  the  nerve  centres,  and  the  spi- 
nal cord  have  all  learned  the  trade,  and  work  g< 
on  with  the  minimum  of  the  activity  of  conscious 
direction. 

The  young  man  who  mounts  a  bicycle  for  the 
first  time  is  acutely  conscious  of  every  effort.  Hut 
he  learns  to  balance  himself  and  propel  his  machine 
by  many  conscious  repetitions  of  the  activities  that 
are  required.  In  time  the  spinal  cord  and  m 
centres,  sensation  and  reflexes  have  learned  the  act 
required  ;  when  the  rider  maintains  his  seat  without 
conscious  effort,  by  means  of  automatism. 

Alcohol  causes  inebriety  ;  there  is  no  other  cause 
of  alcoholic  inebriety.  When  a  man  begins  drink- 
ing, he  may  drink  to  intoxication  ;  at  least,  he  does 
sooner  or  later.  He  drinks  to  drunkenness,  sK 
the  slumber  of  coma,  awakes  tremulous  and  dis- 
gusted, repents,  has  remorse,  and  declares  he  will 
not  repeat  the  disgrace.  He  then  abstains  for  per- 
haps two  or  three  months.  But  certain  circumstances 
lead  him  to  repeat  the  debauch.  Sooner  or  later  he 


184        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

repeats  it  again.  This  man,  in  this  manner,  becomes 
an  inebriate.  He  educates  his  automatism  —  nerve 
centres,  nerve  and  tissue  cells  —  by  these  repeated 
experiences  to  crave  liquor,  to  reform,  to  abstain 
for  a  time.  After  a  sufficient  education  the  work 
goes  on  automatically.  At  the  appointed  time  the 
craving  asserts  itself  ;  there  is  a  demand  for  liquor  ; 
a  debauch  is  the  result,  followed  by  disgust  and  a 
period  of  sobriety. 

Now  to  understand  this  matter  of  impression, 
or  automatism,  I  will  cite  some  instances  which 
are  familiar.  You  know  that  any  object,  seen  by 
the  eye,  transmits  to  the  brain  and  mind  an  idea  of 
the  object.  The  image  of  the  object  is  focused  by 
the  lenses  and  humors  of  the  eye  upon  the  retina, 
which  receives  the  impression.  This  impression  is 
a  veritable  something  created  there  by  the  rays  of 
light.  It  is  a  photograph  and  can  be  seen  object- 
ively. Furthermore,  any  impression  so  made  will 
remain  for  some  time  as  a  picture  upon  the  retina. 
The  mind  sees  nothing  but  this  picture  ;  but  all 
ideas  of  the  mind  relating  to  the  picture  are  referred 
to  the  object  itself.  We  think  that  we  mentally  see 
the  object  ;  but  we  only  see  the  picture. 

The  fact  that  impressions  are  more  or  less  last- 
ing is  taken  advantage  of  by  magicians.  The  pres- 
tidigitateur  takes  a  coin  and  presses  it  firmly  in  the 
palm  of  a  person's  hand,  continuing  the  pressure  a 
few  moments.  Then  by  his  " sleight"  manipula- 
tions he  removes  the  money ;  but  the  person  says  it 
is  still  there  because  he  still  feels  it,  as  he  thinks, 


Till:    PATHOLOGY   OF    INEBRIETY.  185 

He  feels  it  long  enough  for  the  purpose  of  the  ma- 
gician, for  the  reason  that  nature  requires  some  time 
to  remove  the  impress.  The  impress  or  stamp 
made  by  the  money  on  the  skin  can  be  seen  object- 
ively as  a  print  ;  the  mind,  through  the  sensory 
nerves,  perceives  it  more  or  less  definitely.  If  you 
watch  the  impress  made  upon  the  skin  in  this 
manner  you  can  see  that  it  remains  for  a  time  be- 
fore the  physiology  of  nature  removes  it. 

This  phenomenon  is  called  organic  memory.  In 
fact,  it  is  all  there  is  of  any  kind  of  memory.  All 
mental  impressions  are  made  in  this  manner  ;  the 
brain  tissue  is  so  constructed  that  no  mental  im- 
pression made  upon  the  brain  is  ever  lost.  It 
remains  there  until  the  tissue  of  the  brain  is  de- 
stroyed or  built  over.  These  mental  impressions 
are  feelings,  or  ideas,  or  thoughts,  or  emotions,  or 
desires,  every  one  of  which  becomes  a  part  of  the 
brain.  The  brain  carries  it  and  carries  all  of  them 
as  a  part  of  itself.  Mental  impressions  so  made 
upon  the  brain  are  pictures  of  experiences  and  a 
record  of  the  mental  life.  They  are  not  photo- 
graphs ;  but  they  are  stamps.  They  are  not  painted 
on  the  brain  tissue  with  a  brush  ;  they  are  cut  in 
with  the  graver's  tool,  as  words  are  cut  into  marble 
with  a  chisel. 

The  craving  for  drink  is  graven  into  the  brain 
tissue.  The  desire  is  a  part  of  the  physiology  of 
the  brain.  When  the  inebriate  reads  his  own  de- 
sires he  sees  a  hand  writing  on  the  white  walls  of 
his  brain,  cut  deeply  by  the  chisel  of  disease  ;  in- 


186        THE    NON    HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

terpreting  the  message  he  learns  that  his  chief  de- 
sire is  a  craving  for  drink.  No  effort  of  his  can 
erase  the  letters.  He  may  not  drink  ;  but  the  let- 
ters of  his  desire  are  still  there.  Above  the  im- 
pressions of  his  love  of  family,  of  religion,  of  life, 
of  friends  is  written  this  stamp  of  alcohol.  It  de- 
mands satisfaction.  Before  he  prays  he  must  drink. 
King  Alcohol  has  put  his  work  upon  this  brain. 
The  day's  life  must  be  begun  with  drink,  continued 
with  drink,  and  ended  with  the  coma  of  debauch. 

If  the  impression  made  upon  the  brain  by  alcohol 
and  which  causes  the  craving  for  drink  were  in  a 
position  where  it  could  be  seen,  it  would  be  as 
demonstrable  as  the  impress  of  the  coin  in  the 
palm  of  the  hand  or  the  picture  stamped  upon  the 
retina. 

Suppose  an  intoxicated  man  commits  a  crime  ; 
thousands  of  them  do,  and,  in  fact,  the  chief  crim- 
inals are  inebriates  ;  the  criminal  is  caught  while  yet 
intoxicated  and  locked  up.  The  next  morning  he  is 
brought  before  the  justice ;  but  his  craving  for 
drink  is  his  ruling  passion.  He  begs  his  jailer  for 
a  drink  of  liquor  and  is  refused.  He  is  forced  to 
assume  an  attitude  of  sobriety  ;  yet  the  craving  for 
liquor  burns  his  brain  like  a  red-hot  brand.  He  is 
arraigned,  bound  over,  and  placed  in  jail.  After  a 
time  he  is  tried  and  goes  to  the  penitentiary  for  a 
term  of  years.  The  craving  for  that  drink  never 
leaves  him  during  his  term  of  imprisonment.  When 
he  is  discharged  he  makes  for  the  saloon,  gets  that 
drink,  and  ends  in  a  prolonged  debauch,  in  which, 


THE    PATHOLOGY   OF    INEBRIETY.  187 

perhaps,  he  repeats  the  crime  for  which  he  has 
served  a  term  of  punishment.  The  impression  made 
on  the  man's  brain  by  alcohol  never  left  him  during 
his  term  of  imprisonment.  This  is  the  clinical  his- 
tory of  crime  in  relation  to  inebriety. 

If  enforced  abstinence,  prison  discipline,  or  moral 
and  religious  instruction  could  cure  inebriety,  then 
certainly  it  has  been  most  thoroughly  tried.  But  I 
have  never  known  such  treatment  to  effect  a  cure  ; 
in  fact,  it  is  an  exception  to  a  rule  that  punishment 
ever  cures  vice.  On  the  contrary  it  seems  to  de- 
velop the  criminal  character  —  inebriety  and  all. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

PATHOLOGY  OF    INEBRIETY  AND   ITS   RELATIONS 
TO  HEREDITY. 

LITERATURE  on  the  subject  of  inebriety,  .alco- 
holism, and  temperance,  as  also  on  the  re- 
sults of  intemperance,  is  abundant  and  somewhat 
erroneous.  Some  of  it  is  written  by  physicians  and 
biologists  ;  yet  much  of  it  is  the  product  of  persons 
whose  motives  are  above  reproach,  but  whose  ob- 
servations are  somewhat  superficial  and  prejudiced. 
A  misunderstanding  of  this  question  —  the 
pathology  of  inebriety  —  has  led  to  a  confusion  of 
terms.  The  true  definition  of  inebriety  is  a  craving 
for  alcoholic  drink.  The  meaning  of  alcoholism  is 
the  remote  as  well  as  the  immediate  effects  of  the 
poisoning  of  alcohol.  The  first  effect  of  alcoholic 
poisoning  is  a  paresis  of  nerve  centres,  which  in- 
cludes the  brain  and  spinal  cord,  and  is  recognized 
as  intoxication,  or  the  condition  of  drunkenness. 
The  person  so  poisoned  is  drunk.  The  next  effect, 
or  the  result  of  repeated  debauches,  is  to  cause  a 
disease  of  the  nerve  centres,  which  induces  a  regu- 
lar periodical  craving  for  liquor,  that  results  in 
drinking  and  a  debauch  lasting  for  a  few  days  or 
weeks.  The  more  remote  effects  of  alcohol  consist 
in  the  general  pathology  of  degeneration  or  sclero- 

iSS 


ITS   RELATION   TO   HEREDITY.  189 

sis  of  nerve  centres,  nerve  fibres,  nerves,  and  certain 
other  degenerative  diseases  of  other  organs,  as  the 
liver,  stomach,  etc. 

But  much  of  these  remoter  lesions  are  greatly  in 
doubt  so  far  as  the  direct  action  of  alcohol  is  con- 
cerned, as  other  causes  of  disease  —  the  microbe  and 
its  poisons  —  are  so  closely  associated  as  to  be  prac- 
tically inseparable.  The  true  relation  of  alcohol 
poisoning  and  ptomaine  poisoning  is,  most  likely,  that 
the  long  continued  action  of  alcohol  causes  a  weak- 
ening of  the  resisting  force  of  the  tissues  to  the 
microbic  invasions,  thus  producing  mvcotic  degen- 
erations ;  the  alcohol  standing  in  the  position  of  a 
remote  or  secondary  cause. 

One  of  the  great  laws  of  thought,  mind,  phvs- 
ics,  physiology,  and  pathology  is  that  like  causes, 
meeting  with  like  resistance,  will  produce  like  re- 
sults. There  is  no  literature  so  destitute  of  a  knowl- 
edge of  this  law  as  the  earlier  literature  of  medicine, 
especially  relating  to  the  causes  of  disease.  In 
medical  literature,  up  to  twenty  years  ago,  the  single 
supposed  cause  of  disease,  "  cold,"  was  capable  of 
producing  the  phenomena  of  fever,  inflammation, 
degeneration,  tumors,  indigestion,  consumption,  and 
numerous  other  unlike  results.  Later  literature, 
since  the  discovery  of  the  microbe,  has  given  each 
distinctive  general  pathological  lesion  its  specific 
cause  ;  so  that  the  rule  of  etiology  now  is  that  the 
existence  of  any  special  disease  suggests  the  name 
and  nature  of  its  special  cause. 

Inebriety   has   a   single  cause,   which   is  alcohol. 


19°        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

The  drug  poisons  the  tissue  cells  and  nuclei,  prin- 
cipally those  of  the  nerve  centres  ;  the  result  is  in- 
ebriety, or  a  craving  for  alcoholic  drinks.  Any 
condition  or  circumstance  of  life  may  lead  to  or 
serve  as  an  excuse  for  beginning  to  drink  ;  but  no 
person  ever  begins  to  drink  because  he  has  inebri- 
ety. The  disease  must  be  acquired  by  every  one 
who  has  it  ;  every  person  who  drinks  because  of 
inebriety  acquires  the  disease  by  drinking.  The 
vice  of  drinking  is  limited  in  all  cases  to  all  persons 
when  they  begin  drinking,  and  before  they  are  dis- 
eased and  have  inebriety.  When  the  disease  is 
established,  however  much  vice  there  may  be  in  the 
practice  or  habit  of  taking  strong  drink,  the  habit  is 
nevertheless  a  symptom  of  disease.  It  is  vicious 
ignorance  to  drink  water  containing  typhoid  bacilli ; 
but  the  fever,  the  local  lesions,  the  ptomaine  poison- 
ing, the  thirst,  etc.  are  symptoms  and  conditions  of 
disease.  The  craving  of  inebriety  for  alcohol  is  no 
more  controllable  by  the  will  than  is  the  high  tem- 
perature of  a  fever.  The  high  temperature  is 
rhythmical,  but  so  is  the  craving  for  alcohol  in 
inebriety,  and  each  is  a  symptom  of  disease. 

The  pathology  of  inebriety,  like  all  other  pathol- 
ogy which  has  the  casual  antecedent  of  a  poison,  is 
composed  of  symptoms  and  an  underlying  lesion  of 
the  histological  structures.  The  tissue  changes 
which  follow  a  debauch,  and  are  represented  as 
inflammation,  congestion,  effusion,  etc.,  are  not 
the  changes  or  the  pathological  anatomy  of  in- 
ebriety. The  changes  in  the  structure  of  the  nerve 


ITS    RELATION    TO    HKREDITY.  191 

centres  are  not  known  microscopically,  but  are 
inferred  from  the  known  la\vs  of  physiology  and  of 
the  action  of  poisons. 

The  symptoms  —  the  craving,  the  disgust  for 
drink,  and  the  prolonged  period  of  entire  sobriety — 
are  all  symptoms  of  the  disease,  and  each  equally 
depends  upon  the  underlying  pathological  automa- 
tism of  the  nerve  cells  and  centres  ;  all  of  which,  I 
may  say,  is  now  clearly  understood  and  is  expli- 
cable. It  is  known  now  that  inebriety  is  a  disc, 
that  the  lesion  is  pathological  automatism,  or  an 
education  of  the  nerve  centres  in  the  experience  of 
poisoning.  It  is  known  why  the  craving  is  periodi- 
cal and  why  it  is  followed  bv  disgust  and  a  period 
of  sobriety.  The  symptoms  are  explained  by  the 
nature  of  the  lesion  of  the  nerve  centres. 

In  order  to  explain  the  nature  of  inebriety  I  will 
apply  the  known  laws  of  poisons  and  poisoning  to 
the  phenomena  of  drunkenness  and  form  a  deduc- 
tive science  of  the  pathol<; 

I  will  say  that  a  rule  of  poisoning  which  is  veri- 
fied is  that  any  poison,  taken  at  intervals  in  poison- 
ous doses,  from  habit  or  other  reason,  always  causes 
an  increased  tolerance  to  the  poison  in  question  on 
the  part  of  the  tissues  poisoned.  This  tolerance  is 
not  acquired  passively.  It  is  a  product  of  an  in- 
creased activity  of  a  specific  character  on  the 
part  of  the  poisoned  cells.  It  is  no  doubt  a 
change  of  molecular  type,  or  arrangement  of  the 
atoms  of  the  cell  molecules,  and  is  a  variation  of 
structure  resulting  from  a  change  of  environment 


I92        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

which  necessitates  a  new  adaptation  on  the  part  of 
the  cells. 

The  tolerance  to  poison,  under  this  law,  implies 
a  variation  on  the  part  of  the  organic  structures  and 
the  life  of  the  tissue  cells.  Natural  selection  is  at 
work,  by  the  usual  methods  for  the  preservation  of 
life  and  organic  forms,  under  changes  of  environ- 
ment by  the  variation  of  type  which  causes  adapta- 
tion. 

But  an  explanation  can  be  given  of  the  periodic- 
ity of  the  debauch  in  inebriety,  or  the  craving  and 
its  periodical  manifestations.  The  debauch  is  due 
to  the  return  of  the  craving.  It  is  also  true  that 
during  the  period  of  sobriety  the  craving  is  absent. 
I  will  explain,  then,  by  the  established  general  laws 
of  biology,  as  applied  to  pathology,  the  reasons  for 
the  existence  of  the  craving,  its  nature,  and  its 
periodicity  of  return  and  absence,  or  disappearance. 
The  existence  of  the  craving  for  drink  in  the  in- 
ebriate is  a  verification  established  by  the  testimony 
of  all  inebriates.  The  same  law  holds  good  in  all 
other  inebrieties  caused  by  other  poisons,  as  arsenic, 
chloral,  opium,  hasheesh,  and  ether.  The  law  of  in- 
ebriety, produced  by  these  drugs  and  alcohol,  is 
that  the  poisoned  cells  demand  the  presence  of  the 
poison.  The  craving  is  the  call  of  the  poisoned 
tissues  for  the  poison. 

Examining  these  facts  by  the  light  of  biology 
we  see  that  the  pathological  condition  which  ex- 
plains the  craving  is  the  difficulty  that  waits  upon 
variation  in  organisms  which  undergo,  a  sudden 


ITS   RELATION   TO   HEREDITY.  193 

change  of  environment  and  are  compelled  to  adopt 
a  method  of  adaptation. 

The  biological  history  of  species  shows  that  the 
new  conditions  resulting  in  a  change  of  type  to  suit 
them  are  attended  with  difficulties  which  imply 
greater  or  less  pain.  When  tissues  have  acquired 
an  adaptation  to  a  certain  daily  amount  of  poison,  if 
a  portion  of  the  poison  supplied  is  reserved,  a  new 
condition  is  presented  which  demands  a  correspond- 
ing change  of  type  and  adaptation.  This  change  is 
atavistic  in  character.  It  would  appear,  then,  that 
the  craving  for  alcohol  felt  by  the  inebriate,  which 
is  a  symptom  of  his  disease  and  which  compels  him 
to  drink,  is  the  pain  of  variation.  The  law  of  nature 
would  appear  to  be,  as  understood  by  the  inspired 
writer  of  Genesis,  that  pain  waits  upon  the  birth  of 
individuals  as  well  as  upon  the  birth  of  ,  and 

is  an  accompaniment  of  variation  in  organisms  ; 
whether  the  final  result  is  good  or  evil,  or  a  success- 
ful adaptation  or  not,  or  whether  the  force  which 
compels  the  change  is  disease  or  not,  or  is  simply  a 
demand  for  a  change  of  diet.  It  is  true  that  not  all 
organic  difficulties  of  variation  necessarily  reach  the 
consciousness  as  pain.  But  the  need  of  a  new  adapta- 
tion has  its  characteristic  difficulties,  no  matter 
what  the  organism  may  be,  the  change  required,  or 
the  nature  of  the  environment. 

When  a  man  begins  to  drink  he  sooner  or  later 
may  drink  to  intoxication.  After  the  debauch  he 
reforms.  But  he  may  repeat  the  debauch  in  a  few 
weeks  or  months.  It  does  not  require  many  parox- 


194        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

ysms  of  drunkenness  to  establish  inebriety,  with  its 
periodical  craving.  The  drinking  during  this  edu- 
cational period  is  periodical.  The  nerve  centres  are 
educated  to  crave  poison,  to  become  debauched 
with  alcohol,  at  periodical  intervals,  and  then  suffer 
disgust  and  remorse,  and  enter  upon  a  period  of 
sobriety.  With  alcohol  it  is  all  a  matter  of  educa- 
tion or  training. 

Many  medical  gentlemen,  who  claim  to  be  spe- 
cialists in  the  treatment  of  inebriety,  give  heredity 
as  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  inebriety.  There 
could  be  no  greater  error.  If  inebriety  were  heredi- 
tary, all  men  would  be  drunkards.  In  fact,  if  the 
subject  is  studied  from  the  basis  of  an  intelligent 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  heredity  in  general,  and 
the  history  of  alcoholic  indulgence  among  the 
highly  civilized  nations,  the  induction  is  clear  that 
heredity  tends  to  cure  and  prevent  inebriety,  as  it 
does  all  other  disease  which  is  caused  by  a  poison. 

The  very  fact  in  pathology  that  inebriety  is  not 
a  development  but  is  a  symptom  of  a  condition  of 
poisoning,  that  it  is  not  like  the  resulting  tolerance 
to  poison  which  is  a  development,  will  show  why 
inebriety  is  not  hereditary. 

The  history  of  the  civilized  nations  in  relation  to 
alcohol  proves  that,  as  in  all  other  diseases,  heredity 
tends  to  prevent  and  cure,  by  building  up  in  the  tis- 
sues of  the  body  an  immunity  which  is  transmitted 
by  heredity.  It  is  true  that  this  immunity  can  be 
overcome  to  a  limited  extent  by  the  people  ;  but  in 
the  older  nations,  used  to  drink,  the  amount  of 


ITS   RELATION   TO   HEREDITY.  195 

alcohol  consumed  and  tolerated  yearly  would  wipe 
out  of  existence  a  nation  of  equal  population,  which 
did  not  have  the  tolerance  to,  or  immunity  from,  the 
poisonous  effects  of  alcohol,  acquired  by  alcoholic 
poisoning  and  transmitted  by  heredity. 

The  method  of  preventing  any  preventable  dis- 
ease is  by  creating"  a  tolerance  to  the  poison  of  the 
disease  in  the  tissues.  This  is  called  immunity.  It 
is  true  that  this  immunity  is  hereditary.  If  it  \\ 
not  the  generations  of  men  would  have  passed  away 
before  the  data  of  human  history,  as  known  and 
written. 

The  history  of  every  known  disease  caused  by 
the  poison  of  a  germ  tends  to  "cure  itself,"  and  all 
of  them  are  ''self  limited."  I  am  aware  that  these 
terms  are  scientifically  incorrect,  but  they  carry  the 
correct  idea  to  the  mind.  It  is  not  a  law  uf  hered- 
ity that  disease  is  transmitted.  The  law  of  heredity 
is  that  the  immunity  created  in,  and  given  to,  or  ac- 
quired by  the  tissues  that  are  poisoned  is  trans- 
mitted by  heredity. 

But  there  is  an  obverse  side  to  this  question,  as 
there  is  an  obverse  side  to  every  other  question, 
subject,  or  object.  Turning  it  over  we  see  that  the 
obverse  facts  are  as  follows  :  As  like  produces  like 
in  heredity,  a  weak  resistance  to  disease  is  heredi- 
tary, because,  until  there  is  an  immunity  to  dis^ 
created,  there  is  none  to  transmit.  Heredity  will 
transmit  all  the  immunity  there  may  be  in  any  given 
individual,  and  will  also  transmit  all  the  lack  of  im- 
munity there  may  be  at  the  same  time.  It  follows 


I96        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

that  the  true  meaning  of  the  heredity  of  disease  is 
that  where  there  is  a  deficient  tolerance  to  any 
given  disease  this  deficiency  is  transmitted,  and  such 
people  or  other  organisms  having  a  feeble  resistance 
to  disease  take  the  disease  when  exposed  to  it. 
The  contagious  or  invasive  power  of  the  germ  of 
disease  is  inversely  proportionate  to  the  amount  of 
inherited  or  acquired  resistance  or  tolerance  the  tis- 
sues may  have  to  the  disease. 

People  do  not  inherit  disease.  They  inherit  a 
weak  resistance  and  "catch"  the  disease.  Inebriety, 
in  relation  to  heredity,  reaches  back  no  further  than 
the  cradle  and  the  nursery.  Children  are  made  ine- 
briates by  alcohol,  given  to  them  as  food  or  medicine. 
The  same  is  true  of  opiates  and  of  opium  inebriety. 
It  is  a  difficult  matter  indeed  to  prevent  a  disease 
and  a  habit  which  are  thus  so  early  formed. 

The  great  reform  cry  of  the  temperance  agita- 
tors should  be  to  stop  feeding  babes  alcohol  and 
narcotics. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

INEBRIETY  AND  HEREDITY. 

OTATISTICS  do  not  prove  that  inebriety  is  hc- 
^~J  reditarv.  It  is  true  that  inebriates  may  have 
parents  or  an  ancestry  with  a  nerve  lesion,  or  even 
with  inebriety  ;  but  this  is  no  certain  rule.  Inebri- 
ates are  derived  almost  equally  from  educated, 
ignorant,  intemperate,  temperate,  highly  moral  and 
religious  as  well  as  vicious  parents,  and  other 
ancestry.  Inebriates  are  descended  almost  equally 
from  an  ancestry  with  nerve  and  other  disease  and 
those  who  apparently  never  had  nervous  diseases. 
Inebriety,  however,  has  the  reputation  of  being  he- 
reditary ;  I  wish  to  investigate  the  matter  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  laws  of  heredity  and  the  transmis- 
sion of  diseases  and  other  variations. 

The  law  of  heredity  is  that  in  reproduction  like 
produces  like,  subject  to  variations. 

This  is  a  general  law  relating  to  individuals  ;  but 
the  law  must  be  limited  to  many  qualifications  re- 
lating both  to  qualities  and  likeness  transmitted,  as 
well  as  to  qualities  of  the  variations  transmitted. 
Like  produces  like,  for  instance,  relating  to  species, 
orders,  genera,  etc.,  and  like  variations  of  certain 
kinds  are  transmitted.  If  a  parent  has  a  harelip, 

197 


19^        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

cleft  palate,  or  six  fingers  and  toes,  these  variations 
may  be  transmitted.  But  if  a  man  lose  his  right 
hand  by  accident,  or  a  surgical  operation  relieves 
him  of  a  cancer  of  the  lip,  causing  an  artificial  hare- 
lip, these  deformities  will  not  be  transmitted. 

In  the  lower  animals,  as  all  men  know,  certain 
physiological  qualities,  as  the  fineness  of  wool, 
quality  of  milk,  speed,  color  of  the  coat,  disposition 
of  mind,  are  cultivated  and  transmitted  by  heredity 
through  selection. 

These  qualities  are  variations  of  type,  which  are 
physiological  rather  than  traumatic.  If  cattle  were 
dehorned  for  fifty  generations,  it  is  doubtful  if  this 
operation  would  ever  produce  a  race  of  dehorned  or 
hornless  cattle.  Cattle  born  without  horns,  from 
some  physiological  reason  relating  to  use  or  disuse, 
will  transmit  the  peculiarity.  Nature,  it  appears, 
can  be  educated  but  not  forced.  By  some  unknown 
force,  underlying  or  resulting  from  necessity,  or 
use,  or  disuse,  or  from  some  accident  or  invention 
of  development  in  embryology,  a  child  may  be  born 
with  two  thumbs,  and  this  peculiarity  may  be  trans- 
mitted ;  but  if  the  thumb  of  the  right  hand  of  every 
male  of  a  family  through  fifty  generations  were 
amputated,  it  is  not  likely  that  it  would  result  in 
producing  a  family  with  this  hereditary  peculiarity. 

Certain  tribes  of  Indians  have  piebald  horses. 
They  have  carefully  bred,  by  selection,  this  feature 
of  horses.  The  Indians  also  put  a  brand  on  their 
horses,  say  the  letter  S.  Every  Indian  knows  that 
correct  selection  will  breed  piebald  horses ;  but  no 


INEBRIETY  AND    HEREDITY.  199 

Indian  expects  that  such  a  method  will  produce 
horses  branded  with  the  letter.  If  such  a  result 
were  to  follow  the  selected  breeding  and  branding 
of  horses  for  many  generations,  the  Indian  would 
probably  destroy  the  colt  and  enter  upon  a  series 
of  religious  sun  dances,  or  some  such  prescription 
or  superstition,  to  banish  the  charm. 

The  distinction  between  variations  in  type,  then, 
which  makes  some  of  them  transmissible  and  others 
not,  seems  to  be  that  physiological  variations  are 
hereditary,  but  traumatic  variations  are  not  trans- 
mitted. 

A  tribe  of  American  Indians  have  made  a 
practice  for  many  generations  of  flattening  their 
babies'  heads  bv  fastening  a  piece  of  board  or 
like  substance  over  the  forehead  and  vertex.  The 
intelligence  or  superstition  of  the  tribe  recognizes 
some  use  for  this  procedure  and  result;  but  nature 
does  not  so  see  the  deformity  and  refuses  to  trans- 
mit it. 

Chinese  ladies  have  for  centuries  cultivated  a  de- 
formity of  cramped  and  small  feet.  Nature  partly 
acquiesces  in  this  disfigurement  by  the  force  of 
marital  selection  and  disuse.  If  people  never  use 
their  feet,  or  walk  but  little,  the  anatomy  and  func- 
tion will  degenerate,  whether  or  not  the  foot  is 
cramped  and  pinched.  But  I  have  never  yet  heard 
of  the  birth  of  a  child  having  its  ears  ready  pierced 
for  rings,  although  its  female  ancestors  may  have 
worn  these  ornaments  for  fifty  generations. 

The  second  law  of  variation,  or  quality  of   varia- 


200       THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

tion,  which  appears  to  be  hereditary,  is  that  a  de- 
velopment of  any  trait  or  physiology  due  to  the 
resistance  to  any  injury  will  be  transmitted.  Resist- 
ance to  injuries,  or  expenditure  of  energy  by  the 
physiology  of  bodily  effort,  creates  variations  that 
are  hereditary.  This  is  nature's  conservatism. 
Nature  creates  these  faculties  and  structures  from 
use  and  necessity  and  transmits  them.  Nature  will 
also  transmit  variations  acquired  by  disuse,  but 
not  the  deformities  due  to  traumatism  or  injuries, 
without  use  or  disuse.  Nature  publishes  on  the 
page  of  heredity  the  story  of  development  and  vic- 
tory, due  to  activity  or  to  inactivity  in  adaptation, 
but  makes  no  record  of  entire  defeat.  If  a  limb  is 
lost,  nature  makes  no  record.  Nature  will  transmit 
the  variation  if  the  limbs  are  increased  in  muscular 
and  bone  development  and  nerve  power  by  use.  If 
the  limbs  are  dwarfed  in  muscle,  bone,  and  nerve 
energy,  through  disuse,  nature  will  also  transmit  this 
condition. 

Disease  is  proverbially  hereditary.  The  chronic 
infectious  diseases  particularly  enjoy  that  reputa- 
tion. But  investigating  closely  it  will  be  seen  that 
in  the  transmission  of  disease  there  are  two  methods 
of  heredity.  In  the  first  place  disease  can  be  trans- 
mitted directly  from  the  mother  to  the  unborn 
child.  In  such  cases  the  active  disease  is  conveyed 

J 

and  not  the  results.  I  do  not  regard  this  as  strictly 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  heredity,  however  ;  it  is 
rather  a  method  of  contagion,  or  direct  communi- 
cation of  disease.  Consumption,  syphilis,  and  no 


INEBRIETY   AND   HEREDITY.  201 

doubt  many  other  diseases  are  thus  communicated. 
I  do  not  doubt  that  inebriety  may  be  transmitted, 
but  in  this  manner  only.  I  see  no  reason  why  alco- 
hol, drank  by  the  mother,  should  exempt  her  from 
making  an  inebriate  of  her  unborn  child. 

Observation  shows  us  that  nature,  in  the  hered- 
ity of  disease,  follows  the  same  rules  of  conduct  as 
in  the  acquirement  and  transmission  of  other  de- 
formities. Physiological  variations  acquired  by  the 
laws  of  use  and  disuse  will  be  transmitted,  but  the 
traumatic  lesions  resulting  from  disease  are  not 
hereditary.  Poisoning  is  traumatism  or  injury.  If 
tissue  is  destroyed  by  a  sharp  edge,  a  crushing 
wheel,  a  hot  iron,  or  a  caustic  or  disintegrating  poi- 
son, the  result  is  the  same  in  either  case,  being 
mechanical  traumatism.  This  destruction  of  tissue 
is  not  hereditary.  An  induration,  a  degeneration, 
hypertrophy  or  atrophy  are  not  hereditary,  as  such, 
except  as  acquirements  of  the  individual  to  resist  a 
cause  of  disease. 

The  results  of  poisoning  are  not  hereditary.  If 
a  person  have  stricture  of  the  esophagus  from  swal- 
lowing lye,  the  stricture  will  not  be  transmitted.  If 
a  person  have  the  stamp  of  alcohol  on  his  brain, 
due  to  the  poisoning  of  that  drug,  and  which  results 
in  a  craving  for  drink,  from  the  standpoint  of  con- 
sciousness this  mark  of  alcohol,  this  inebriety,  is  not 
transmissible.  Nature  refuses  to  make  a  record  of 
such  a  lesion,  just  as  she  refuses  to  transmit  a  cica- 
trix  by  heredity. 

But    in    the   heredity    of    disease    something    is 


202        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

always  transmitted.  Alcohol  may  be  directly  trans- 
mitted, as  I  have  said.  The  germ  of  disease  can  be 
an  associate  of  reproduction  as  well  as  of  life,  and 
be  transmitted  in  this  manner  ;  but  this  is  not  true 
of  heredity.  But  from  the  laws  already  known  I 
think  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  learn  what  it  is  that  is 
transmitted  as  the  result  of  disease. 

In  this  world  of  strife  and  development  the  phe- 
nomena of  life  are  made  up  of  action  and  reaction, 
or  assault  and  resistance.  I  do  not  know  of  a  phe- 
nomenon of  physics  or  of  life  that  is  not  created  in 
this  manner  and  that  is  not  the  resultant  of  forces 
acting  in  opposition.  Animal  and  vegetable  types 
and  forms  are  determined  and  shaped  under  these 
laws.  Living  things  resist  each  other  mechanically 
and  they  resist  each  other's  poisons.  If  the  resist- 
ance is  not  sufficient  they  succumb  ;  if  it  is  suffi- 
cient they  acquire  an  increased  power  of  resistance. 
These  qualities  and  forms  are  transmitted  ;  nature 
creates  them  under  the  laws  of  use  and  disuse  be- 
cause she  wants  them  ;  she  transmits  physiological 
variations. 

But  if  in  the  struggle  for  life  and  a  living  an 
animal  loses  a  wing,  or  a  canine  tooth,  or  its  claws, 
nature  does  not  transmit  the  deformity.  Nature 
transmits  the  acquirement  of  resistance  that  grew  out 
of  the  fight.  If  an  animal  is  poisoned,  it  is  either 
destroyed  or  it  gains  more  or  less  immunity  to  the 
poison  by  a  variation  of  poisoned  tissues.  No  de- 
formity resulting  from  the  poison  is  transmitted, 
but  the  degree  of  acquirement  of  immunity,  or 


INEBRIETY  AND   HEREDITY.  203 

power  of  resisting  the  poison,  is  transmitted.  In 
this  manner  nature  enables  those  to  live  who  can 
acquire  the  power  of  resistance.  If  every  deform- 
ity caused  by  accident,  or  the  result  of  the  struggle 
for  life,  or  disease,  or  poison,  were  subject  to  hered- 
ity, we  would  be  a  deformed  race.  The  human 
skin  would  be  a  cicatrix,  muscles  would  be  threads 
and  tumors.  In  short,  humanity  would  be  an  in- 
describable monstrosity. 

In  heredity  the  resistance  to  disease  is  trans- 
mitted, but  not  the  results  of  the  disease.  Nature 
does  not  adopt  disease  for  its  usefulness  and  make 
it  a  subject  of  heredity.  In  fighting  diseases  or 
other  enemies  nature  gains  information,  wrisdom, 
new  types  and  new  forms,  through  variation  of 
structure  under  use  or  disuse  ;  these  things  are 
transmitted  by  heredity. 

Applying  these  rules  to  disease  and  to  life  we 
find  there  is  what  may  be  called  an  apparent  hered- 
ity and  a  heredity  which  is  real.  It  is  the  custom 
of  physicians,  when  investigating  a  disease,  dili- 
gently to  trace  the  diseases  of  the  ancestry  of  pa- 
tients as  far  as  possible.  Life  insurance  companies 
do  the  same,  rejecting  applicants  in  good  health  on 
the  diseases  of  their  ancestry.  Apparently  there  is 
here  an  incongruity,  but  in  reality  there  is  not. 
The  acquirement  of  an  immunity  to  disease  is  a 
matter  of  centuries  of  time  and  hundreds  of  genera- 
tions. We  know  very  well  that  certain  families  are 
tuberculous  ;  others  have  other  so-called  family 
diseases  and  hereditary  diseases.  Now  these  dis- 


204        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

eases  are  not  hereditary  in  the  light  of  true  hered- 
ity. The  diseases  are  not  transmitted  by  true 
heredity,  but  they  may  be  directly  communicated. 
The  explanation  of  a  hereditary  disease  is  that 
nature  in  that  family  has  not  yet  acquired  an  immu- 
nity to  that  particular  disease.  If  heredity  handed 
down  to  succeeding  generations  actual  disease  and 
its  results  as  a  law,  this  earth  would  be  as  barren  of 
life  as  the  moon.  True  heredity  does  not  transmit 
germs,  poisons,  scars,  amputations,  degenerations, 
or  like  causes  or  results  of  disease. 

But  heredity  does  transmit  a  feature  of  the  re- 
sults of  disease.  If  disease  leads  to  the  disuse  of  a 
part  or  a  function,  this  result  may  become  a  feature 
of  heredity,  if  it  is  continued  long  enough  to  create 
an  organic  variation  in  type.  But  the  rule  of  hered- 
ity is  that  pathology,  as  a  direct  entity,  is  not 
hereditary  ;  its  direct  results  are  not  hereditary  ; 
but  the  physiological  resistance  it  creates,  through 
physiological  use,  is  transmitted,  and  any  result  of 
remote  character  may  be  transmitted  which  is  pro- 
duced by  physiological  disuse. 

With  these  data  in  hand  I  will  recapitulate  the 
relations  of  inebriety  to  heredity. 

Inebriety  is  a  direct  lesion  of  the  tissue  cells  of 
the  cerebro-spinal  system  caused  by  alcohol,  and  if 
it  is  alcoholic  inebriety  it  can  be  caused  by  nothing 
else.  This  lesion  is  a  pathological  result,  a  trau- 
matism,  a  wound.  As  such  it  is  no  more  trsna- 
missible  than  a  cicatrix  or  the  stump  of  an  amputa- 
tion. But  no  such  lesion  or  result  of  poisoning  can 


INEBRIETY  AND   HEREDITY.  205 

occur  without  creating  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
poisoned  tissues.  The  resistance  results  in  an  in- 
creased tolerance  to  the  poison.  That  this  is  a  law 
of  poisoning  cannot  be  disputed.  This  law  is  that 
if  a  poison  is  not  fatal,  one  of  its  results  is  to  create 
an  increased  tolerance  on  the  part  of  the  poisoned 
tissues  to  the  action  of  the  poison.  It  is  known  to 
all  common  observation  that  poison,  taken  in  grad- 
ually increasing  doses,  creates  a  tolerance  to  its 
poisonous  action.  This  tolerance  is  a  power  ac- 
quired physiologically  by  the  law  of  use.  It  be- 
comes, therefore,  a  bodily  quality,  just  as  much  a 
quality  of  the  body  as  the  physiology  of  digestion. 
It  is  as  much  an  organic  part  of  the  body  as  the 
teeth  or  stomach.  It  is  not  a  cicatrix  or  a  mark  of 
nature's  defeat.  It  is  a  hereditary  quality  and  is 
transmissible.  It  is  this  law  which  undc'rlics  the 
whole  phenomena  of  the  acquired  immunity  from 
disease. 

So  far  as  true  heredity  is  concerned  its  influence 
is  entirely  in  opposition  to  the  action  of  alcohol  in 
creating  inebriety.  Observation  will  bear  out  this 
induction.  It  is  true  that  many  families  are  inebri- 
ates ;  but  it  is  also  true  that  many  families  whose 
ancestors  were  inebriates  are  now  temperate  or 
moderate  drinkers.  The  result  of  the  transmission 
of  the  power  of  resisting  alcohol  is  to  present,  to 
this  extent,  the  creation  of  inebriety  as  a  result  of 
drinking. 

It  is  in  this  manner  that  nature  teaches  the 
tenets  and  pleasures  of  moderate  drinking.  It  is 


206        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF  INEBRIETY. 

only  by  this  method  of  nature  that  moderate  or 
temperate  drinking  is  made  possible.  If  one  thous- 
and Europeans  whose  ancestors  were  drinkers  for 
many  centuries  and  one  thousand  native  Ameri- 
cans whose  ancestry  never  tasted  liquor  were  given 
an  equal  quantity  of  liquor  daily,  the  result  would 
be  one  thousand  native  American  inebriates  and 
perhaps  one  hundred  or  less  inebriate  Europeans. 

But  beyond  any  question  inebriety  can  be  trans- 
mitted by  the  mother  to  the  unborn  babe,  as  other 
diseases  may  be  by  this  direct  method.  No  doubt 
children  are  born  inebriates  through  this  cause. 
Children  are  also  made  inebriates  in  the  cradle  and 
nursery.  But  heredity  has  nothing  to  do  with 
these  causes  of  inebriety  nor  with  this  method  and 
manner  of  the  communication  of  disease. 

The  most  prominent  instance  of  heredity,  in  re- 
lation to  disuse,  is  found  in  the  reproduction  of  the 
rudimentary  organs,  as  they  are  called  ;  notably  the 
wolfian  bodies,  the  appendix  vermiformis,  the  pineal 
gland,  and  the  nails  and  canine  teeth.  The  wolfian 
bodies  were  kidneys  in  an  ancestral  worm.  The  ap- 
pendix vermiformis  was  a  greatly  elongated  intes- 
tine, acting  as  a  pouch  in  a  marsupial  ancestor  of  the 
human  race,  which  served  to  stow  away  for  future 
use  quantities  of  coarse  fodder,  as  sticks,  twigs,  and 
grass.  The  pineal  gland  was  an  eye  in  the  back  of 
the  head  of  a  reptilian  ancestor  of  man.  The  time 
came,  in  the  course  of  animal  development,  when 
forethought  was  more  in  demand  than  "hind-sight ;" 
hence  the  cerebrum  underwent  greater  growth  and 


INEBRIETY  AM)    HEREDITY.  207 

development ;  disuse,  through  the  physiology  of 
heredity,  pulled  the  back  eye  into  the  head,  covered 
it  with  the  skull  and  the  cerebral  membranes,  and 
buried  it  deeply  beneath  the  cerebrum.  In  due 
time  these  memories  of  heredity  will  disappear  from 
the  human  organization.  There  will  be  no  terrible 
appendix,  with  its  pathological  fatalities,  no  pineal 
gland,  or  canine  teeth,  or  wolfian  bodies.  The 
nails  will  probably  remain,  as  they  are  again  cm- 
ployed  by  usefulness,  greatly  modified  from  the 
original  types.  Nature  is  slowly  getting  rid  of 
them  all  by  the  slow  process  of  disuse  and  heredity. 
Surgery  is  doing  much  to  relieve  individuals  of  the 
appendix  ;  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  this  will  not  aid 
heredity.  If  from  time  to.  time  until  now  the  ances- 
tral eye,  or  the  pineal  gland,  had  been  extirpated  by 
surgery  from  its  original  reptilian  possessor  and 
nature  had  continued  to  use  the  eye,  or  sustain  a 
want  for  its  use,  people  would  be  born  to-day  with 
a  perfect  eye  at  the  back  of  the  head. 

All  living  things  are  subject  to  the  conditions 
surrounding  them.  The  human  mind  is  subject  to 
the  same  conditions.  People  are  happy  or  in  trouble 
according  to  corresponding  conditions  of  life.  It  is 
impossible  for  two  living  things,  or  for  two  mem- 
bers of  a  species,  or  two  persons  in  a  family  to  live 
under  and  be  subject  to  precisely  the  same  con- 
ditions ;  for  this  reason  no  two  living  things  or 
members  of  a  family  are  precisely  alike.  No  two 
people  ever  looked  precisely  alike  and  probably 
never  will.  Differences  can  always  be  seen  some- 


208        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

where  when  any  two  living  plants  or  animals  are 
inspected.  But  the  law  remains  that  like  produces 
like,  subject  to  variations,  or  subject  to  conditions 
of  life,  which  cannot  be  precisely  the  same  in  any 
two  living  things. 

Science  has  been  busy  for  many  years  studying 
the  hereditary  feature  of  biology.  The  object  is  to 
find  out  the  secret  of  reproduction  and  the  sub- 
stance or  type  of  life  which  is  the  agent  of  repro- 
duction, as  a  force,  and  the  method  of  its  action. 
The  cells  of  tissues  can  be  seen  with  the  micro- 
scope. Their  birth,  life,  and  death  have  been  watched 
and  every  item  noted  with  photographic  accuracy. 
Cells  multiply  themselves  by  division.  One  would 
think  that  this  might  explain  the  phenomena  of 
heredity ;  but  it  does  not  to  any  extent  further  than 
to  verify  the  law  that  like  produces  like. 

In  reproduction  of  animals  and  plants  the  com- 
bination of  the  germ  cell  and  the  egg  cell  reproduces 
the  living  organism  after  this  general  law  of  hered- 
ity ;  but  the  question  to  answer  is,  how  is  it  possible 
that  each  of  these  two  different  cells  contains  all 
the  characteristics  of  the  organisms  which  they  re- 
produce ?  Each  cell  contains  in  some  form  a  com- 
plete record  of  the  whole  anatomy  of  the  parent, 
and  not  only  that,  but  family  "variations,  and  the 
structure,  peculiarities,  and  vagaries  of  its  whole  line 
of  ancestry.  If  a  germ  cell  or  an  egg  cell  could  be 
opened  and  read,  it  would  reveal  the  history  of  its 
ancestry  back  to  the  beginning  of  life.  It  is  all 
there.  The  birth  of  each  new  order,  species,  and 


INEBRIETY  AXD   HEREDITY.  209 

family  is  written  on  the  walls  of  that  cell.  Nothing 
seems  to  be  forgotten.  As  life  is  developed  and 
the  form  of  the  living  organism  develops,  the  whole 
anatomy  of  the  .parent  is  reproduced,  with  certain 
characteristics  of  family,  race,  and  species ;  even  the 
mementoes  of  more  ancient  and  less  developed  an- 
cestry are  reproduced. 

In  the  union  and  blending  of  the  two  cells,  the 
germ  and  the  egg  cell,  the  characteristics  of  both 
parents  and  families  are  there  represented.  It  is 
here  where  the  great  struggle  for  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  begins.  The  result  of  this  blending  is  that 
the  strongest  characteristics  survive,  but  they  are 
modified  by  the  weaker  and  opposing  ones.  No  end 
of  philosophy  and  science  yet  unwritten  and  unread 
will  date  from  the  reproduction  of  life,  and  the  phys- 
iology of  these  two  cells,  in  relation  to  heredity. 

Scientists  and  philosophers,  who  have  graduated 
from  the  schools  of  thought,  have  stood  at  the  por- 
tal of  nature's  temple  containing  this  mystery  of 
life,  and,  knowing  little,  have  ventured  to  suggest 
hypotheses.  The  human  way  of  explaining  laws 
which  are  uniform  in  character  is  to  suggest  a  more 
general  law  that  is  in  uniformity  with  these  more 
special  laws.  A  few  men  have  suggested  hypothe- 
ses to  explain  why  it  is  and  how  it  is  that  two  cells 
of  different  kinds,  representing  the  complete  exist- 
ing and  historical  record  of  two  living  organisms, 
back  to  the  origin  of  life,  can  be  so  constructed  and 
so  endowed.  It  seems  incomprehensible  ;  it  seems 
impossible  ;  but  we  know  it  is  true. 


210        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

History  tells  us  that  a  certain  astronomer  could 
not  mathematically  explain  the  solar  system  with- 
out hypothecating  the  existence  of  an  unknown 
planet.  The  astronomer's  figures  led  to  the  discov- 
ery of  the  supposed  world.  Philosophy  is  now  at- 
tempting to  read  the  written  history  of  the  repro- 
ductive cells  by  the  same  method.  Reasoning  is 
sometimes  in  advance  of  the  glass  lenses  of  the  tel- 
escope and  microscope. 

Herbert  Spencer,  Charles  Darwin,  De  Vries, 
Haeckel,  and  Weissman  have  ventured  hypotheses  to 
make  the  explanation  of  the  problem  of  heredity  in 
reproduction.  Practically  there  is  little  difference 
in  the  suggestions  of  these  scientists.  They  all  as- 
sume the  existence  of  minute  organisms  which  in- 
habit the  germ  cells,  about  as  delegates  inhabit  a 
convention  or  as  written  books  occupy  a  library. 

Herbert  Spencer  called  these  imaginary  creations 
physiological  units.  Darwin  spoke  of  them  as 
gemmules.  These  men  associated  the  idea  with 
living  organic  individuals,  as  delegates  to  a  conven- 
tion may  be  understood  to  represent  the  character 
and  sentiment  and  structure  of  their  respective  com- 
munities. De  Vries,  Weissman,  and  perhaps  others 
name  the  substance  which  is  thus  the  representative 
of  heredity  in  the  germ  cells,  germ  plasm,  or  pan-' 
genes  ;  giving  an  idea  which  is  more  like  that  of 
written  records  collected  in  a  safe  deposit  or  a 
library. 

This  hypothesis  is  no  doubt  approximately  cor- 
rect, considered  from  the  stand-point  of  the  general 


1XEBRIETY  AND    HEREDITY.  2n 

idea.  We  know  that  nature  maintains  a  record  of 
all  history.  There  is  a  geological  record,  a  zoolog- 
ical record,  and  a  record  of  plants.  The  record 
made  by  nature  tells  how  worlds  are  made,  inhab- 
ited, and  go  out  of  existence.  A  living  record  is 
represented  by  every  organism.  The  idea  of  units, 
representative  of  the  complete  anatomy  of  an  indi- 
vidual, as  a  delegate  from  every  cell  in  his  body, 
and  representative  also  of  every  phenomenon,  oc- 
currence, act,  and  formation  of  his  history,  with  that 
of  his  ancestry,  and  numerous  enough  to  represent 
all  these  things,  existing  in  a  reproductive  cell,  is 
not  inconsistent  with  what  we  already  know  about 
the  magnitude,  great  and  small,  of  living  things. 

We  have  reason  to  believe,  also,  that  nature 
in  some  manner  makes  a  record  of  her  own  acts 
on  protoplasmic  organic  structure  and  cell  organic 
structure.  The  nerve  impressions  made  upon  cer- 
tain nerve  centres,  which  we  know  as  memorv,  must 
be  a  record  of  this  character.  It  is  of  little  conse- 
quence whether  the  representative  units  have  writ- 
ten records,  or  whether  their  force  in  heredity  comes 
through  a  function  similar  to  tradition.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  by  some  physiological  process  the  repro- 
ductive cells  contain  the  record  of  heredity. 

But  the  great  complexity  of  function  of  these 
representative  units  can  scarcely  be  imagined.  As 
representatives  and  delegates  from  every  his- 
torical item  and  every  tissue  cell  of  the  par- 
ents, they  are  to  create  and  determine  the  char- 
ter of  a  new  living  organism.  The  struggle  is  to 


212        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

prove  the  species,  to  build  up  a  variation  or  two 
from  the  original  type,  which  shall  be  an  improve- 
ment. 

But  whatever  the  struggle  and  result  may  be,  it 
would  seem  that  a  formulated  code  of  heredity  has 
been  established.  A  regular  method  of  practice  has 
been  adopted.  Certain  things  in  reproduction  are 
generally  rejected  on  appearance.  In  addition  to 
this  there  is  a  developing  force  in  the  ascendant 
in  heredity,  which  generally  obtains  the  strongest 
representation.  Generally  the  world  grows  better 
through  heredity,  subject  to  the  conditions  of  life. 

By  the  established  code  of  conduct  in  heredity 
mutilations  which  are  not  the  result  of  physiological 
manufacture  are  not  reproduced.  Scars  and  the 
pathological  results  of  poisons  are  not  reproduced. 
Inebriety  is  not  reproduced.  It  is  rejected  by 
the  code  of  hereditary  transmission  along  with 
the  surgical  deformities  and  the  results  of  mechan- 
ical violence. 

Inebriety  is  made  up  of  certain  distinct  factors 
of  anatomical  changes  and  symptoms  of  representa- 
tive character.  The  cells  are  poisoned,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  undergo  variation.  This  variation  is 
complex  and  of  unlike  factors,  because  one  of  the 
symptoms  is  a  craving  for  drink,  another  is  a  peri- 
odical disgust  for  liquor,  and  still  another  is  an  in- 
creased tolerance  to  the  drug. 

It  appears  that  this  increased  tolerance  to  the 
drug  is  the  only  factor  transmitted.  The  direct  ef- 
fect of  the  poisoif  is  to  cause  a  traumatism  ;  this 


INEBRIETY   AND   HEREDITY.  213 

change  of  conditions  creates  the  appetite  for  liquor. 
The  cells  acquire,  by  physiological  action,  a  distinct 
variation  which  enables  them  to  resist  the  poison, 
or  tolerate  a  greater  quantity  of  it,  which  is  compar- 
ative immunity  ;  this  quality,  being  the  product  of 
physiology,  is  transmitted.  In  ptomaine  poisoning 
of  certain  kinds  great  pain  in  a  peripheral  nerve 
may  follow,  being  named  neuralgia.  If  the  disease 
proceeds,  neuritis  may  succeed,  and  even  nerve  de- 
generation. But  another  result  is  also  an  increased 
power  of  resistance  to  the  ptomaine.  In  this  case 
the  neuritis,  or  the  degeneration,  will  not  be  trans- 
mitted ;  but  a  per  centum  of  the  acquired  immunity 
will  be  inherited  or  transmitted.  A  certain  degree 
of  moral  weakness  goes  with  drinking  and  inebriety. 
The  moral  weakness  leads  to  drink,  or  permits  it. 
Ethics  is  the  result  of  mental  development,  and,  as 
such,  is  a  physiological  acquirement.  As  a  result 
of  a  weak  ethical  heredity  a  person  drinks  and 
goes  on  to  inebriety.  But  in  such  a  case  the  ine- 
briety is  not  inherited.  Nature  endeavors,  through 
heredity,  in  such  a  case,  to  balance  the  hereditary 
weak  moral  character  by  an  increase  of  the  toler- 
ance to  alcohol.  The  weak  ethical  condition  is 
transmitted. 

Many  vicious  immoral  men  are  temperate  drink- 
:rs,  if  they  do  not  entirely  abstain.  They  may  be 
>ccasional  or  temperate  drinkers,  but  are  not  known 
drunkards,  although  they  may  belong  to  almost 
my  of  the  classes  of  criminals. 

On  the  other  hand,  men  of  the  highest  intellect- 


214        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

ual  and  moral  character  may  be  inebriates,  although 
inebriety  is  unknown  among  their  ancestry. 

For  these  reasons  I  do  not  regard  inebriety  as 
hereditary.  It  is  a  disease  that  is  acquired  at  some 
time  during  life  by  every  individual  who  suffers 
from  its  terrible  grasp.  But  it  is  most  certainly  a 
curable  disease. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

CHILD  INKI'.KIKTY. 

TNEBRIETY  has  been  considered  as  existing  only 
J-  among  men  and  among  women.  Young  men 
and  young  women,  we  find,  suffer  from  inebriety  just 
the  same  as  the  older  ones.  This  fact  may  not  be 
new,  but  it  may  be  a  new  wav  of  putting  it.  Drunk- 
enness begins  at  all  ages.  If  it  is  desired  to  "wipe 
out"  this  great  curse,  one  must  go  to  the  cradles  and 
the  nurseries  to  do  it. 

No  thought  can  be  more  startling  to  the  brain 
and  heart  of  a  thinking,  feeling  woman  or  man  than 
is  the  fact  that  babes  are  made  inebriates  in  the  cra- 
dle and  nursery.  That  the  innocents  should  have 
inebriety  forced  upon  them  brings  a  shudder  of 
pity.  Here  in  the  nursery  and  in  the  cradle  the 
child  is  in  its  mother's  hands  —  in  her  very  arms. 
How  can  a  child  under  such  circumstances  be  made 
n  inebriate?  Babes  are  made  inebriates,  of  course, 
y  mistake.  No  mother  would  voluntarily  do  any- 
thing that  would  poison  her  babe  or  cause  it  to 
grow  up  a  drunkard  or  a  drug-user.  Alcohol  is 
the  same  liquor  on  the  nursery  table  or  sideboard  as 
it  is  in  the  saloon.  It  ^as  the  same  effect  when 
given  to  a  bab<>  _n  taken  by  an  older  person. 

215 


216        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

If  it  is  "good"  for  any  purpose  in  one  place,  it  is  in 
the  other.  If  a  physician  prescribes  it,  a  friend 
"treats"  it,  a  man  takes  it  himself,  or  if  it  is  drank 
as  a  compliment,  or  a  fashion,  medicine,  luxury,  or 
as  a  habit,  one  dire  result  is  the  same  in  all  cases. 
The  result  is  that  inebriety  is  produced  proportion- 
ately to  the  amount  of  liquor  drank.  Other  inebri- 
eties are  the  penalties  of  babyhood,  the  nursery,  and 
thoughtlessness.  The  soothing  syrups  contain  opium 
—  all  of  them.  Soothing  syrup  given  to  "quiet" 
babes  poisons  them  with  opium  and  causes  opium 
inebriety.  Mothers  and  nurses  know  how  difficult 
it  is  to  wean  a  babe  from  a  favorite  soothing  syrup 
which  has  been  used  habitually  for  some  time  to 
keep  the  child  from  crying,  or  even  to  treat  disease. 
The  reason  is  that  the  child  is  an  opium  inebriate 
and  is  enduring  the  pangs  and  torture  imposed  by 
this  poison  and  by  inebriety.  Every  one  knows  that 
the  use  of  soothing  syrups  and  liquors  is  almost 
universal  in  childhood.  When  a  child  is  born,  alco- 
hol, in  some  form,  is  generally  there.  It  is  rare 
that  a  child  escapes  liquor  in  its  first  bath,  or  its  first 
twenty-four  hours  without  a  few  drops  of  "sling." 
Very  likely  within  a  week  it  gets  a  dose  of  syrup  or 
other  preparation  of  opium.  The  agent  of  inebriety 
continues  along  with  the  development  of  the  child. 
Little  nursery  ailments  are  treated  by  these  domestic 
remedies,  and  where  these  fail,  as  I  shall  show,  the 
physician  prescribes  the  same  cure.  When  the  dis- 
eases of  childhood  come  on,  the  same  remedies  are 
used.  In  fact,  the  principal  treatment  for  diphthe- 


CHILD   INEBRIETY.  217 

ria  is  alcohol  ;  children  are  sometimes  given,  under 
direction  of  physicians,  a  teaspoonful  or  more  of 
whisky  every  two  hours  for  this  disease. 

The  other  diseases  of  childhood,  measles,  scar- 
let fever,  whooping  cough,  etc.,  are  treated  in  a 
similar  manner.  It  is  rare  indeed  that  a  child  suc- 
ceeds in  getting  through  even  its  teething  period 
without  the  penalty  of  alcoholic  inebriety,  and  it  is 
fortunate,  indeed,  if  it  is  not  both  an  alcoholic  and 
an  opium  inebriate. 

Much  has  been  said  about  the  heredity  of  ine- 
briety. There  is  no  evidence  that  this  disease  is  he- 
reditary. If  it  be  possible  that  its  heredity  rea. 
back  any  farther  than  the  cradle  and  the  nursery, 
then  it  certainly  can  reach  no  farther  than  the  in- 
fluence that  alcohol  may  have  on  an  unborn  child, 
if  liquor  is  drank  by  the  mother.  I  do  not  doubt 
that  inebriates  are  born  and  made  in  this  manner. 
Mothers  may  sometimes  be  inebriates,  or  take  liq- 
uor as  a  remedy.  The  danger  is  to  the  child. 
The  alcohol,  no  doubt,  circulates  through  the  brain 
of  the  infant  unborn,  under  such  circumstances,  and 
puts  the  stamp  of  inebriety  on  the  delicate  tissues. 
When  the  child  is  born  its  first  crying  breath  is 
likely  to  inhale  the  odors  of  liquor.  It  enters  the 
cradle  and  its  cry  is  stifled  by  opium  and  whisky. 
It  has  the  diseases  of  childhood  and  these  drugs  are 
used  as  remedies.  It  then  goes  into  the  world  cau- 
tioned to  "  Touch  not,  taste  not,  handle  not  ;  "  pos- 
sibly it  may  not ;  but  this  child  is  already  an  inebri- 
ate, unknown  to  itself,  and  its  first  drink  may  lead 


21 8        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

into  a  prolonged  and  heart-breaking  debauch.  He 
enters  upon  the  career  of  a  drunkard,  and  unless 
cured  will  torture  existence  for  a  few  years  with  an 
inebriate's  misery  of  life,  and  then  fill  a  drunkard's 
grave. 

All  men  and  women  —  fathers,  mothers,  brothers, 
and  sisters — should  know  one  great  truth  relating  to 
the  different  drug  inebrieties.  This  great  truth  is 
that  each  inebriety,  alcoholic,  opiate,  or  whatever  it 
may  be,  can  be  caused  by  nothing  else  than  the 
corresponding  drug.  No  art,  accident,  anathema, 
disease,  or  calamity,  or  heredity  can  cause  drunk- 
enness or  alcoholic  inebriety. 

But  now  look  on  the  obverse  side  of  this  ques- 
tion. It  reads  that  alcohol  will  always  cause  ine- 
briety. This  is  true.  One  drop,  or  any  other  quan- 
tity of  alcohol,  continuously  given  will  cause  a  pro- 
portionate inebriety.  Alcohol  at  any  time  of  life 
will  cause  inebriety.  Whether  drank  in  the  cradle, 
or  nursery,  or  saloon,  or  hospital,  or  harvest  field, 
or  in  fashionable  society,  or  at  the  convivial  board, 
the  inevitable,  relentless  consequence  of  liquor  tak- 
ing or  giving  as  medicine  or  luxury  is  always  ine- 
briety, as  a  disease,  in  a  definite  ratio  to  the  amount 
of  alcohol  drank.  It  is  for  this  reason  and  under 
this  law  that  babes  are  born  inebriates  and  their 
disease  is  nurtured  and  fed  in  the  cradle  and 
nursery.  It  is  by  this  law  of  poisoning  that  the 
few  who  escape  inebriety  in  childhood  may  be  made 
inebriates  later  on  in  life,  through  the  influence  of 
good  society,  or  bad  society,  or  sickness,  or  vicious- 


CHILD   INEBRIETY.  219 

ness.  The  quantity  of  liquor  consumed  by  Christian 
nations  is  simply  enormous  ;  but  they  do  not  drink 
it  without  results,  for  the  amount  of  inebriety  and 
its  accompanying  sorrow  is  also  of  equally  "mag- 
nificent proportions."  There  is  no  alcohol  with- 
out inebriety,  and  no  inebriety  without  alcohol. 
Whether  estimated  from  the  standpoint  of  individ- 
uals, whether  babes,  or  men  and  women,  the  mea- 
sure of  alcohol  drank  is  the  measure  of  the  disease 
of  inebriety.  Abstinence  from  alcohol,  or  "  tem- 
perance," rests  largely  with  the  women  of  all  coun- 
tries. The  women  suffer  with  inebriate  husbands, 
while  the  husbands  are  sober  enough  to  know  the 
meaning  of  misery  ;  but  the  woman's  sorrow  con- 
tinues while  the  inebriate  is  sleeping  off  the  coma 
of  debauch  under  her  care.  When  the  husband  en- 
ters upon  his  paroxysm  of  inebriety  he  throws  a  pall 
over  the  household.  If  poverty  is  the  result,  the 
women  and  children  feel  the  burden.  If  the  inebri- 
ate is  brutalized  by  liquor,  the  wife  is  the  subject  of 
his  brutality.  If  the  wife  is  degraded,  her  loss  of 
pride  in  home  and  love  of  husband  is  the  cause  ; 
id  liquor  is  behind  them  all. 

I,  therefore,  need  only  offer  this  hint  on  child  in- 
ebriety to  give  intemperance  and  the  dragon  alcohol 
severe  blow.  The  method  of  causing  inebriety  in 
:hildhood  is  the  secret  of  intemperance.  It  is  to  in- 
:mperance  what  the  riddle  was  to  the  dragon  slain 
>y  Jason  when  he  recovered  the  golden  fleece.  In 
the  future  I  may  some  day  see  a  painting  —  one  of 
grandest  on  earth.  It  will  not  be  by  one  of  the 


220       THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

old  masters,  for  the  old  masters  knew  not  the  sub- 
ject, but  the  picture  will  be  by  a  modern  artist.  It 
will  picture  an  infant  in  its  cradle  smiling  with  baby 
happiness  because  its  mother  is  near.  The  mother 
is  standing  by,  one  hand  resting  on  the  cradle  ;  with 
the  other  she  is  pushing  aside  the  tempter,  alcohol. 
She  will  not  have  alcohol,  either  as  remedy,  food,  or 
luxury  for  her  child.  She  does  not  need  to  be 
clothed  in  tragic  dress,  or  grasp  the  monster,  in- 
temperance, by  the  throat  and  strangle  him  for  cen- 
turies of  deception  and  degradation.  She  stands 
where  she  is  queen,  in  her  own  nursery,  by  her  own 
child,  and  she  simply  says,  "I  know  better  than  to 
poison  my  child  with  inebriating  drugs.  I  will  pro- 
tect him;  he  shall  not  suffer;  he  shall  not  be  poi- 
soned ;  he  must  have  the  privilege  of  a  sober  life." 

This  will  be  a  picture  from  real  life.  It  will 
represent  the  true  reformer  occupied  at  her  work. 
True  reform  consists  rather  in  preventing  evil.  The 
mother  by  the  cradle  of  her  child  preventing  the 
taint  of  pure  blood  by  alcohol  is  the  key  to  the 
position ;  following  this,  alcohol  must  abdicate  as  a 
medicine  and  limit  its  jurisdiction  to  fashion,  vice, 
and  luxury. 

Many  people  like  an  excuse  for  failings.  Some 
people  will  apologize,  even,  for  disease/  The  con- 
viction is  growing  upon  the  public  mind  very  rapidly 
that  the  public  is  responsible  for  disease,  and  men 
and  women  are  entirely  responsible  for  the  vice  of 
drinking.  I  do  not  say  that  every  man  who  is  an 
inebriate  is  responsible  for  his  own  inebriety,  but  I 


CHILD   INEBRIETY.  221 

say  that  the  public  is  responsible  for  all  disease,  in- 
cluding inebriety.  The  so-called  preventable  dis- 
eases should  be  prevented.  The  vice  of  drinking  in 
private  or  public  and  the  mistake  of  giving  babes 
the  drugs  that  bind  the  innocent  brains  and  hearts 
in  the  degradation  of  such  slavery  are  responsible 
for  all  this  inebriety  and  disease  and  for  the  misery 
of  drunkenness. 

It  has  been  remarked  by  some  good  and  mis- 
taken people  that  the  present  generation  cannot  be 
reformed  ;  that  the  disease  with  them  all  is  heredi- 
tary, and  the  attention  of  reformers  must  be  directed 
toward  the  succeeding  generation.  This  is  a  mis- 
take. In  the  first  place  any  inebriate  can  be  cured. 
In  the  second  place  the  laws  of  heredity,  as  under- 
stood from  the  general  laws  of  biology  and  the 
special  laws  of  poisoning,  do  not  prove  that  in- 
ebriety is  hereditary.  In  fact  they  prove  quite  the 
contrary.  People  either  do  not  observe  correctly 
the  succession  of  events  in  heredity  or  they  do  not 
sufficiently  understand  the  laws  of  inheritance. 

We  know  now,  very  well,  just  what  things  are  in- 
lerited  and  what  are  not,  and  a  little  observation  of 
icts  will  show  us  that  nature  does  not  transmit  a 
iving  for  drink,  but  transmits,  rather,  an  increased 
>wer  of  resisting  the  poisoning  effects  of  alcohol. 

this  were  not  true,  and    if   hereditary  inebriety 

re  true,  this  world  would  have  been  depopulated 
•ithin  five  hundred  years  from  the  date  on  which 
foah  planted  his  vine.  We  forget,  or  some  of  us 
>,  that  there  is  an  optimistic  side  of  nature.  Some- 


222        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

thing  has  not  only  kept  up  the  total  population,  but 
has  also  lessened  the  power  of  epidemics  and  devel- 
oped civilization. 

That  alcohol  is  a  universal  and  general  prescrip- 
tion for  children's  diseases  needs  no  proof.  There 
is  not  a  book  published  on  this  subject  which  does 
not  furnish  the  evidence  in  so  many  words.  The 
medical  works  of  Drs.  Flint,  Tanner,  Pepper, 
Zeimssen,  Henoch,  Smith,  Aitken,  and  others,  all 
agree  in  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquors  and  opium  in 
children's  diseases.  I  do  not  dispute  the  value  of 
these  drugs  as  a  medicine  in  any  case  or  disease  as 
obtained  in  their  medical  works.  On  the  other 
hand  I  do  not  doubt  that  a  satisfactory  substitute 
can  be  found  in  each  case  for  the  alcohol.  But 
there  can  be  no  denial  that  alcohol,  given  under 
these  circumstances  to  children,  creates  the  disease 
of  inebriety. 

The  banishment  from  Eden  did  not  destroy  the 
sacredness  of  home.  This  is  the  place  where  chil- 
dren are  cradled,  educated,  and  developed ;  where 
the  human  beatitudes  of  love,  virtue,  and  happiness 
are  like  the  stars  of  the  night  and  the  shining  suns. 
But  the  trail  of  the  serpent  can  be  seen  over  the 
domestic  flowers  inherited  from  the  ancestral  home. 
The  old  tempter  was  in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  but 
the  trail  made  over  the  cradle,  the  toys,  the  luxuries 
of  the  modern  home  is  by  the  worm  of  the  still. 

The  skill  of  evil  lies  in  the  mistakes  of  igno- 
rance. It  requires  technical  knowledge  to  know 
that  alcohol  cannot  be  given  to  babes  without  caus- 


CHILD    INEBRIETY.  223 

ing  inebriety  ;  but  now  this  greatest  of  mistakes  will 
be  remedied,  and  this  most  wretched  evil  will  dis- 
appear. Mothers  will  not  give  their  children  alco- 
hol, and  medical  science  must  find  a  substitute  for 
liquors  as  a  medicine. 

Any  drug  which  causes  a  corresponding  inebriety 
may  cause  other  diseases  in  addition  to  the  inebriety. 
Nerve  degeneration,  fatty  organic  disease  of  vari- 
ous organs,  amyloid  degeneration,  and  other  types 
of  organic  decay  may  be  among  the  remote  results 
of  alcohol. 

But  these  conditions  have  nothing  to  do  with 
:he  inebriety  proper.  Curing  them  will  not  cure 
the  inebriety.  The  meaning  of  inebriety  is  that  it  is 
a  lesion  of  the  tissue  cells,  caused  by  poison,  which 
produces  one  great  symptom  —  a  craving  for  the 
drug  in  question. 

Inebriety  caused  by  whisky  is  a  craving  for 
whisky.  The  craving  is  there  constantly  or  periodi- 
cally, whether  the  liquor  is  drank  or  not.  The 
terms  drunkenness  and  inebriety  are  frequently  con- 
fused. A  man  who  has  chronic  poisoning  from 
tlcohol  is  an  inebriate,  because  he  craves  liquor. 
Drunkenness  is  acute  alcoholic  poisoning  from 
drinking  alcoholic  liquors,  in  consequence  of  a 
craving  for  them,  or  inebriety. 

Heredity  has  always  ranked  high  as  a  cause  of 
inebriety.  I  think  that  as  a  cause  it  ranks  among  the 
least.  I  do  not  think  the  craving  for  drink  is  trans- 
mitted by  heredity.  I  do  not  think  that  any  other 
nervous  disease  ever  creates  a  craving  for  drink. 


224        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

I  do  not  think  that  any  condition  of  life,  mental, 
moral,  or  physical,  ever  creates  a  craving  for  drink. 
These  things  may  all  lead  a  person  who  is  not  an 
inebriate  to  begin  drinking  and  make  an  inebriate  of 
himself,  but  they  do  not  cause  inebriety  in  any  other 
way. 

In  my  opinion  —  and  I  base  it  on  an  induction 
from  facts  that  no  one  can  dispute,  and  that  are 
known  to  all  people  —  the  heredity  of  drinking 
reaches  back  no  farther  than  the  cradle  or  the  un- 
born child.  The  two  great  institutions  which  lead 
to  the  disease  of  inebriety  are  the  saloon  and  the 
nursery.  The  two  great  conditions  of  life  which 
lead  to  drinking  and  drug  taking  are  illness  and 
custom. 

The  diseases  of  infancy  and  childhood  create 
the  call  for  and  the  use  of  the  drugs  that  inebriate. 
Indigestion,  too  much  crying,  cholera  infantum, 
measles,  scarlet  fever,  and,  particularly,  diph- 
theria are  treated  by  alcohol  and  opium  very  largely 
by  the  physicians.  Children  with  indigestion  are 
fretful  and  are  quieted  by  whisky  or  brandy,  or  some 
preparation  of  opium.  It  is  impossible  to  give 
children  opiates  or  alcohol  in  any  quantity  without 
causing  a  corresponding  drug  inebriety.  All  people 
who  have  had  experience  as  nurses,  or  who  have 
closely  observed  the  troubles  of  childhood  and  their 
antidotes,  will  bear  me  out  in  these  observations. 
The  drugs  are  used  in  the  manner  I  here  state.  The 
consequences  cannot  be  denied.  If  the  drugs  are 
used  in  this  manner,  then  it  is  true  that  they  make 


CHILD    INEBRIETY.  225 

inebriates  of  children  or  it  is  not  true  that  these 
drugs  cause  inebriety  in  any  person,  under  any  con- 
ditions. 

The  stamp  of  the  drug  remains  on  the  brain  of 
the  infant,  even  if  the  drug  is  no  longer  given. 
The  misery  of  babes,  drugged  to  inebriety  and 
then,  very  likely,  suddenly  deprived  of  the  accus- 
tomed stimulant,  is  without  doubt  as  acute  and 
great  as  in  older  people.  But  even  if  the  drug  is 
no  longer  given  the  inebrktv  remains.  When  the 
babe  grows  up  to  the  stage  of  youth  he  has  the 
craving  without  a  name  or  understanding,  perhaps, 
until  for  some  reason  a  stimulant  or  dose  of  the  ac- 
customed drug  is  taken.  There  is  then  an  immedi- 
ate, and,  perhaps,  prolonged  debauch,  followed  by 
the  usual  phenomena  of  inebriety.  It  makes  no 
difference  if  the  drug  is  alcohol,  or  opium,  or  both. 
Both  of  these  inebrieties  may  exist  in  the  same  per- 
son, and  he  may  be  both  a  drunkard  and  an  opium 
user ;  this  condition  can  be  and  is  the  result  of 
opium  and  whisky  inebriety  acquired  in  the  cradle 
and  nursery. 

The  inebriety  of  youth,  of  middle  age,  and  of  the 
whole  life  is  often  the  result  of  child  drugging 
rather  than  heredity.  In  fact,  observation  will  prove 
that  in  those  cases  of  apparent  heredity  the  parents 
and  children  were  each  drugged  with  opiates  and 
alcohol.  In  all  estimates  of  the  relation  of  heredity 
to  inebriety  this  factor  must  be  considered,  and  it 
must  be  clear  that  in  order  to  rectify  the  heredity 
of  inebriety  it  must  be  proved  that  the  children  of 


226        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

inebriates  have  not  had.  inebriety  thrust  upon  them 
by  giving  them  the  drugs  that  cause  this  disease 
while  they  were  yet  inhabitants  of  the  cradle  and 
nursery. 

Child  inebriety  is  one  of  the  most  prevalent  dis- 
eases. It  is  coextensive  with  alcohol  and  opiates 
given  to  children  for  any  cause  whatever.  It  is 
therefore  as  extensive  as  the  prevalence  of  the  dis- 
eases of  childhood,  because  the  inebriating  drugs 
are  universally  used  in  these  diseases. 

I  regard  child  inebriety  as  the  chief  cause  of  in- 
temperance among  all  classes.  I  do  not  say  that 
every  child  subjected  to  the  influence  of  these  drugs 
becomes  an  active  inebriate;  but  I  say  that  if  the 
history  of  inebriety  is  carefully  inquired  into,  it  will 
be  found  that  the  larger  number  of  inebriates  took 
opiates  or  alcohol  when  they  were  children. 

The  question  has  prominent  moral  and  medical 
factors  for  consideration.  Is  it  a  medical  necessity 
and  is  it  morally  right  to  give  children  the  drugs 
that  enslave  as  remedies  for  diseases  ?  I  claim  that 
in  the  present  stage  of  the  development  of  the 
science  of  inebriety  and  its  treatment  that  necessary 
remedies  in  diseases  must  be  used.  If  statistics 
verify  that  only  ten  per  cent  of  diphtheria  cases  re- 
cover without  alcohol  while  thirty  per  cent  recover 
under  its  use  as  a  remedy,  then  the  remedy  must  be 
given.  However,  the  new  remedy,  antitoxin,  we 
trust,  will  obviate  the  necessity  of  alcoholizing  the 
infant  system  throughout  the  future  in  this  disease. 
The  same  rule  must  govern  the  use  of  other  drugs. 


CHILD    INEBRIETY. 


'The    question    of    preventing   these    dise  rows 

more  important  the  more  it  is  considered.  The  in- 
fant mortality  from  children's  diseases  has  always 
been  the  great  and  important  theme  of  the  sani- 
tarian. It  is  better  to  prevent  the  children's  dis- 
eases than  permit  the  great  mortality  and  the  in- 
ebriety resulting  from  their  non-prevention.  The 
prevention  consists  in  general  and  special  sanitation. 
It  is  my  firm  conviction,  and  all  things  appear  to 
verify  it,  that,  viewed  from  whatever  standpoint, 
the  intemperance  of  this  world  is  caused  bv  the 
lack  of  sanitation  which  can  destroy  the  preventable 
diseases. 

In  the  great  majority  of  cases  inebriety  is  directly 
caused  in  childhood,  as  well  as  in  adult  life,  by  drugs 
used  as  remedies.  Tin-  prescription,  the  cradle,  the 
nurscrv,  as  well  as  the1  imitation,  the  saloon,  and 
social  customs  are  responsible  for  the  widelv  dif- 
fused disease  of  inebriety  throughout  civilization. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

ACUTE  ALCOHOLIC  POISONING  AND  DELIRIUM 
TREMENS. 

WHEN  any  form  of  alcohol  is  drank  it  does 
not  undergo  digestion  or  other  changes  of 
a  chemical  nature  in  the  stomach.  Instead,  it  im- 
mediately enters  the  blood  current  through  the  veins 
of  the  stomach.  A  few  years  ago,  and  before  the 
modern  use  of  antiseptics,  alcohol  was  freely  ap- 
plied to  wounds.  In  such  practice  it  was  learned 
that  the  drug  was  taken  into  the  circulation  by  the 
blood  vessels  of  the  wound,  in  quantities  sufficient, 
even,  to  cause  symptoms  of  poisoning  or  drunken- 
ness. It  is  also  known  that  alcohol  may  be  ab- 
sorbed through  the  unbroken  skin,  and  that  alcohol 
baths,  lotions,  and  baths  in  eau  de  cologne  will  cause 
intoxication  by  absorption.  The  fact  is  that  this 
habit  of  using  alcohol  or  cologne  baths  is  a  mild 
type  of  inebriety,  which  is  quite  common.  Napo- 
leon was  credited  with  taking  a  daily  sponge  bath 
with  the  perfumery  named. 

But  when  alcohol  gains  a  place  in  the  blood  cur- 
rent it  circulates  in  greater  proportion  in  the  brain 
and  liver.  These  organs  have  least  resistance  to 
the  presence  and  poisoning  action  of  alcohol.  For 
this  reason  alcohol  is  said  to  have  an  affinity  for  the 

228 


POISONING  AND    DELIRIUM    TKEMKNS.      229 

liver  and  nerve  centres.  There  is  no  "affinity"  in 
any  relation  between  it  and  the  bodily  organs  ;  it  is 
only  a  question  of  the  degree  of  resistance  which 
the  different  organs  of  the  body  may  possess.  Al- 
cohol accumulates  in  the  greatest  quantities  where 
it  meets  with  the  least  resistance. 

One  of  the  stirring  questions  relating  to  alcohol- 
ism and  alcohol,  which  has  been  the  subject  of 
much  controversy,  is  what  becomes  of  the  alcohol 
after  its  entrance  into  the  blood  current  ?  Obser- 
vation tells  us  that  the  system  gets  rid  of  it  by  some 
means  ;  for  intoxication,  not  its  results,  passes  away 
in  a  few  hours.  It  is  clear  that  the  drug  is  either 
eliminated  from  the  body  or  destroyed. 

Numerous  experiments  have  been  made  to  settle 
this  question,  which  may  be  considered  at  the  pres- 
ent time  to  be  fully  determined.  The  fact  appears  to 
be  that  a  small  fraction  is  eliminated  by  skin,  lungs, 
and  kidneys,  but  the  greater  part  is  consumed  or 
oxidized  in  the  blood  and  tissues. 

The  first  series  of  experiments  were  made  by  the 
chemists  Lallemand,  Perier,  and  Duroy.  These  were 
followed  by  those  of  Parker  and  Wallowiez.  These 
experimenters  sought  to  verify  that  alcohol  was 
eliminated  by  the  skin,  kidneys,  and  lungs  ;  this 
they  proved  to  be  true  ;  but  their  experiments  did 
not  prove  that  the  whole  amount  taken  was  thus 
eliminated.  They  made  a  qualitative  but  not  a 
quantitative  test. 

To  obtain  further  data  on  this  question  animals 
were  feel  with  alcohol  to  excess  and  then  killed, 


230        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

when  the  alcohol  was  sought  for  in  the  tissues,  with 
the  result  of  discovering  only  small  quantities  in 
proportion  to  the  amount  given. 

The  proof  is  clear  that  when  alcohol  is  taken  it 
is  not  eliminated  by  the  emunctory  organs,  but  that 
it  undergoes  a  chemical  change  in  the  blood  and 
tissues  of  the  body.  Some  experimenters  contend 
that  the  products  of  this  chemical  change  are  car- 
bonic dioxide  and  water  ;  while  others  say  that  the 
products  are  aldehyde,  and  oxalic  and  acetic  acids. 
The  practical  question  is  that  when  alcohol  is  thus 
consumed  it  yields  force,  which  is  utilized  by  the 
tissues.  There  is  very  little  denial  of  the  general 
observation  that  the  use  of  alcohol  conserves  the 
physiological  forces  and  that  it  lessens  the  bodily 
waste.  The  fact  is  confirmed  by  chemical  tests, 
which  show  that  the  elimination  of  urea  is  lessened 
under  the  influence  of  alcohol.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  moderate  use  of  alcohol  increases  the  bod- 
ily weight  and  inclines  to  corpulence.  These  facts, 
together  with  the  well  known  one  that  alcohol  less- 
ens the  temperature  of  the  body,  go  to  prove  that 
the  drug  has  force  that  takes  the  place  of  food, 
directly,  and  that  this  action  is  aided  by  indirect 
action  in  lessening  the  waste  of  the  body. 

The  physiological  action  of  alcohol,  or  alcohol 
as  a  poison,  varies  as  the  dose.  In  fact  a  close 
study  of  the  subject  shows  that  a  large  dose  has  an 
opposite  effect  all  round  to  the  effect  of  a  small 
one.  This  is  the  law  of  all  poisons  and  of  all  drugs 
used  as  medicines. 


POISONING  AND   DELIRIUM   TREMENS.      231 

In  a  small  dose  alcohol  is,  however,  not  a  poison. 
It  is  a  stimulant.  By  this  is  meant  that  when  a 
dose  of  alcohol  is  taken  it  increases  the  activities  of 
the  tissue  cells  and  bodily  organs.  This  increased 
activity  is  for  the  purpose  of  getting  rid  of  the  alco- 
hol. But  an  increase  of  the  activity  of  the  organs 
and  tissue  cells  cannot  occur,  with  a  single  excep- 
tion, in  any  other  direction  than  their  normal  func- 
tions. The  normal  functions  of  the  cells  are  nutri- 
tion, reproduction,  and  special  function.  The  cells 
absorb  nutriment,  they  reproduce  other  cells,  and 
they  produce  special  work.  Thus  the  liver  cells, 
a  special  function,  manufacture  bile  ;  the  kidm 
glands,  nerves,  and  other  special  organs  have  special 
types  of  cells,  with  corresponding  special  functions. 

A  small  quantity  of  alcohol,  half  an  ounce,  say, 
in  form  of  liquor,  or  diluted  in  water,  acts  as  a 
stimulant.  It  increases  the  activities  of  cell  metab- 
olism, or  cell  work.  This  increases,  or  means  the 
increase  of,  cell  nutrition,  reproduction,  and  special 
function.  A  small  dose,  therefore,  increases  the 
activity  of  every  organ  of  the  body.  It  brightens 
thought  and  feeling.  It  sharpens  the  special  senses. 
It  increases  the  digestive  fluids,  the  action  of  the 
heart,  kidneys,  lungs,  and  other  organs.  It  increases 
all  functional  activities,  and  it  raises  the  temperature. 
But  it  does  one  thing  more  with  the  tissue  cells  —  it 
causes  them  to  undergo  a  variation  of  type ;  this 
variation  is  designed  to  enable  them  to  acquire  a 
tolerance  to  the  poisonous  action  of  alcohol,  to  re- 
sist it  the  better. 


232        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

It  is  this  action  of  alcohol  that  gives  it  whatever 
medical  power  it  may  have.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  when  given  in  a  disease,  or  to 
antagonize  the  poison  of  a  disease  or  the  shock 
of  an  injury,  a  larger  dose  is  required  to  produce 
the  usual  stimulating  effect.  Too  large  a  dose, 
though,  will  do  injury  by  favoring,  or  acting  in  the 
same  manner  as.  the  poison  of  the  disease.  In 
shock  from  injury  too  much  alcohol  will  aid  the 
paralysis  of  the  heart. 

If  four  to  six  ounces  are  taken  the  effect  is  op- 
posite to  that  of  a  stimulant  dose.  The  intellectual 
part  of  the  brain  is  paralyzed.  The  victim  is  coma- 
tose. He  loses  consciousness,  will,  memory,  and 
volition.  His  muscles  are  paralyzed.  He  loses 
sensation,  both  special  and  general.  His  tempera- 
ture falls  about  two  degrees.  The  special  functions 
of  special  organs  cease  action,  more  or  less  com- 
pletely. There  is  no  digestion  and  no  secretion  or 
excretion ;  this  condition  continues  until  the  victim 
either  dies,  or  the  alcohol  is  disposed  of  by  the 
physiological  forces. 

This  is  acute  poisoning  or  drunkenness,  or  a  fit 
of  debauchery.  The  poisoning  is  caused  by  the 
action  of  the  alcohol  upon  the  tissue  cells.  By 
this  action  the  functions  of  the  cells  are  greatly 
lessened.  Their  nutrition,  reproduction,  and  special 
functions  are  temporarily  abolished.  They  appear 
to  have  but  one  power  left — and  those  powers 
which  are  not  destroyed  acquire  an  increased 
strength  to  resist  the  poisonous  action  of  alcohol. 


POISONING   AND    DELIRIUM    TREMENS.      233 

They  also  are  forced  to  assume  that  condition, 
which,  in  order  to  get  rid  of,  entails  a  very  painful 
atavistic  variation.  In  other  words  they  are  so 
changed  in  type  that  alcohol  becomes  necessary  to 
them  ;  they  crave  alcohol — and  this  is  inebriety. 

When  the  person  awakes  from  the  coma  of  acute 
alcohol  poisoning  the  drug  is  disposed  of  by  his 
body  forces.  All  functions  seem  at  a  stand-still. 
The  nerve  centres  and  every  tissue  cell  crave  alco- 
hol. The  mind  is  confused  and  bewildered.  The 
sensory  nerves  are  exalted,  consciousness  is  pricked 
with  pains,  the  muscles  are  tremulous,  the  secretions 
and  excretions  locked,  the  circulation  feeble,  the 
temperature  low;  there  is  general  physical  and 
mental  agony.  The  principal  powers  of  the  body 
seem  to  be  a  craving  for  liquor  and  an  increased 
tolerance  to  its  poisonous  action.  The  victim  will 
require  nearly  as  much  liquor  to  remove  his  pains, 
steady  his  nerves  and  muscles,  and  start  the  general 
and  special  functions  of  his  body  into  action  as  he 
drank  the  day  before  to  bring  about  total  oblivion. 
When  the  liquor  is  drank  the  bodily  functions 
are  restored,  but  under  a  new  dispensation.  The 
cell  activities  and  the  functions  of  all  special  organs 
arc  now  under  the  dominion  of  alcohol.  The  cells 
have  undergone  a  variation,  giving  them  a  greater 
tolerance  to  alcohol;  the  atavistic  variation,  which 
must  follow  if  alcohol  is  withdrawn,  is  painful  in  its 
nature,  because  alcohol  is  an  anaesthetic  ;  this  pain, 
because  relieved  by  alcohol,  is  interpreted  as  a 
craving  for  liquor.  This  is  inebriety. 


234        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

In  a  debauch  an  inebriate  generally  drinks  to 
unconsciousness.  The  reason  of  this  is  that  a 
forced  variation  of  cells  is  always  painful.  During 
a  debauch  the  cells  are  as  active  as  possible,  but 
with  increasing  loss  of  function.  The  organs,  tis- 
sues, and  cells  are  righting  alcohol.  It  is  a  war,  and 
"war  is  cruelty"  ;  a  battle  is  painful.  The  inebriate 
swallows  drink  after  drink,  because  each  additional 
dose  lessens  his  consciousness  of  the  distress  of  this 
warfare.  He  drinks  until  anaesthetised,  until  the 
pain  ceases,  until  the  resistance  of  his  organs  is 
stilled,  until  his  consciousness  fades  into  oblivion 
and  he  sinks  into  the  sleep  of  coma.  In  a  debauch 
the  inebriate  does  not  continue  his  doses  for  the 
reason  that  his  pleasure  is  increased  directly,  but 
because  the  pain  of  poisoning  is  lessened  thereby. 
But  many  people  do  not  drink  to  this  excess.  There 
are  reasons  for  this.  These  people  have  by  inherit- 
ance a  greater  tolerance  to  alcohol.  Poisoning  by 
alcohol  does  not  cause  them  so  much  general  dis- 
tress. The  higher  cerebral  centres,  as  well  as  the 
centres  of  the  sympathetic  system,  have  a  greater 
tolerance  to  the  poison.  These  people  are  more 
moderate  drinkers  simply  because  they,  by  reason 
of  this  tolerance,  do  not  feel  the  pains  or  have  the 
craving  for  liquor.  They  are  said  to  have  greater 
will  power.  This  is  true,  but  the  nervous  substratum 
of  their  will  power  has  a  greater  tolerance  to  alco- 
hol. The  inebriate's  debauch  lasts  from  three  days 
to  as  many  weeks.  During  this  period,  in  a  typical 
inebriate  who  inherits  a  weak  resistance  to  alcohol, 


POISONING   AND    DELIRIUM    TREMENS.      235 

each   day   sees   a  greater  quantity  of  liquor  drank 
and  each  night  there   is   the  same  coma.     The   de- 
bauch continues  until  some  organ  succumbs  to  the 
poison;    sometimes  the  brain,  sometimes  the  stom- 
ach.     When   this   occurs   there  is  a  general    consent 
of  all   organs  and  tissue's  to  go  through   the   terrors 
of  a  change  backward  to  old  conditions.      There   is 
now  a  disgust  for  liquor,  but  with  this  disgust  th< 
is  remorse  of  conscience,  mental  inebriety,  or  insan- 
ity, delusions,  illusions,  and  hallucinatio;  :ater 
or    less    degree  and   extent.      There   is    paralys^ 
nerve    centres    and   of  special    functions.       A|>p< 
and  digestion   are  lost  and   excretion  is  at  its  lowest 
ebb.      Pains  are  innumerable  and  severe.      The  mus- 
cles  are    tremulous   and    incoordinate.      The    suffer- 
ing of  mind  and   bodv  is   intense       This  is  delirium 
tremens.       The   disease   varies    only    in    degree   and 
not  in   character  in   different                and  its    avei 
duration    is    live    davs    if    not    cut   short    from    any 
cause. 

This  condition  represents  the  atavism  of  the 
variation  of  the  cells.  They  arc  losing  during  this 
period  their  acquired  tolerance  to  alcohol  and  as- 
suming the  type  thev  held  before  the  debauch. 
When  this  condition  is  reached  the  delirium  sub- 
sides, the  excretions  are  increased,  the  appetite  and 
digestion  return,  the  natural  mental  condition  is 
restored,  a  period  of  sobriety  follows,  and  all  is  well 
except  a  fee-ling  of  remorse-  and  shame  in  all  ine- 
briates in  whom  these  feelings  are  not  destroyed  or 
who  were  ever  gifted  with  such  feelii; 


236        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

The  objective  symptoms  of  drunkenness  and 
delirium  tremens  are  familiar  to  all  physicians,  as 
well  as  other  observers.  The  primary  effect  of 
liquor  upon  the  mind,  as  the  inebriate  enters  upon 
his  debauch,  is  to  exalt  his  mental  and  emotional 
activities.  He  loses  his  control  of  speech  and 
wears  his  secrets  on  his  sleeve.  He  is  usually  very 
amiable  and  his  self-confidence  is  wonderfully  in- 
creased. He  has  no  cares  and  all  trouble  and  diffi- 
culties become  little  pigmies  of  the  imagination. 
He  has  great  faith  in  himself.  He  expresses  his 
opinions  loudly,  is  always  ready  for  an  argument, 
and  is  very  impatient  when  contradicted.  The  cere- 
bral centre  which  controls  actions  and  speech  and 
gives  the  cautious  and  prudent  self-control  of  ideas 
and  conduct  is  paralyzed  early  ;  the  hidden,  self- 
contained  Ego  suddenly  stands  out  fully  exposed 
and  a  "clean  breast"  is  made  of  the  man's  inner 
life.  Words  roll  off  his  tongue  in  a  ceaseless  tor- 
rent—  words  that  his  restraint  has  buried  and  hid- 
den from  sight,  but  which  now  come  forth  as  spirits 
and  goblins  from  hidden  caves,  laden  with  calami- 
ties and  foolishness.  All  the  passions  press  to  the 
front  without  concealment  or  restraint  and  with 
increased  intensity  and  activity  —  love,  fear,  hatred, 
and  anger  lend  their  changing  colors  to  impulses 
that  are  uncontrolled. 

The  inebriate,  in  thus  poisoning  one  nerve  centre 
after  another  while  he  continues  to  drink,  tells  the 
story  of  man's  development  as  well  as  dishonor. 
Whatever  was  created  last  in  human  development  is 


POISONING   AND    DFJJRIUM    TREMENS.      237 

lost  first  as  the  inebriate  continues  to  drink.  The 
higher  centres,  the  cerebrum  and  mental  faculties, 
are  the  first  to  go.  Of  these  faculties  the  very  first 
to  fail  is  mental  restraint,  or  the  inhibition  of  the 
expression  of  ideas,  conduct,  and  physical  action. 
The  motor  forces  are  vet  stimulated,  and  for  this 
reason  the  inebriate  talks  without  restraint.  The 
psycho-motor  centres  arc  yet  active  and  the  inebri- 
ate travels  rapidly  about,  very  often  calling  upon 
friends,  visiting  his  enemies,  and  entering  business 
places  where  he  exposes  his  condition — conscious  of 
everything  lie  has  ever  heard  or  known  except  that  he 
is  drunk.  His  modesty  is  gone.  He  fears  nobody. 
lie  meets  people  with  whom  he  is  not  on  good  terms 
and  proceeds  to  argue  their  differences,  perhaps  grows 
belligerent  and  gets  into  a  brawl.  This  condition 
seems  to  teach  that  in  human  development  the  faculty 
of  moral  restraint  was  among  the  later  creations. 

The  rule  is  that  the  inebriate,  as  he  continues  his 
debauch,  has  little  consciousness  of  his  condition,  or 
conduct,  or  mental  and  bodily  activities.  Heap- 
pears  semi-conscious,  but  after  waking  from  his 
coma  he  remembers  nothing  of  what  has  occurred. 
But  as  the  debauch  continues  the  lower  brain  cen- 
tres become  involved,  muscular  action  becomes 
incoordinate.  The  man  reels  and  staggers  ;  he  is 
losing  conscious  volition.  For  a  time  yet  his  motor 
activities  are  sustained,  and  he  walks  about  in  a 
drunken,  talking,  brawling,  staggering,  and  drink- 
ing state.  But  now  the  automatism  of  the  nerve 
centres  of  organic  life  begin  to  cCt.  The  will  has 


238        THE    XOX  HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

no  activity  or  control  of  his  actions.  He  seems 
to  be  guided  by  other  forces  than  mind  and  will. 
The  organic  centres  take  up  the  thread  of  life  and 
conduct,  and,  if  possible,  get  the  drunken  man 
home.  Practically,  he  is  now  a  somnambulist.  He 
reels  homeward,  even  takes  the  car,  or  drives  his 
horse- — -or  does  these  things  as  well  as  the  auto- 
matic nerve  centres  and  spinal  cord  can  do  them,  as 
educated  by  habit.  Men  in  this  condition  will  un- 
consciously find  their  way  home,  along  the  accus- 
tomed routes  by  the  accustomed  methods,  and  the 
next  day  remember  nothing  about  it. 

But  if  the  inebriate  indulges  in  a  debauch  awa) 
from  home  or  familiar  place,  the  same  attempt  of 
his  automatic  life  leads  him  into  trouble.  He  wan- 
ders off  through  the  streets  unconsciously  search- 
ing for  home,  and,  unless  taken  care  of,  finally  goes 
to  bed  in  the  gutter,  or  walks  into  the  river  or  off  a 
bridge,  or  into  other  danger.  As  a  rule  the  ine- 
briate always  drinks  in  his  debauch  until  he  reaches 
this  condition. 

But  the  unconscious  action  of  inebriates  is  some- 
times surprising,  and  illustrates  how  great  is  the 
force  of  automatic  life.  Surgical  operations,  me- 
chanical work  of  other  kinds,  and  many  other  ex- 
amples of  work  and.  activities  have  been  performed 
by  men  who  afterwards  slept  the  sleep  of  alcoholic 
coma,  and  when  they  awakened  knew  nothing  of 
what  they  had  done.  Sometimes  this  automatic  work 
was  done  fairly  well.  It  was  all  work,  however, 
that  the  person  was  in  the  habit  of  doing  ;  the  cen- 


POISONING    AND    DKLlRir.M    TRKMKXS.      239 

trcs  of  automatic  life  performed  the  work  again 
with  certainly  very  little  help  from  conscious  voli- 
tion. Thousands  of  people  are  killed  every  year 
by  the  direct  poisonous  action  of  alcohol.  Thou- 
sands more  are  killed  indirectly  by  reason  of  the 
unconscious  walking  into  danger  by  the  inebriates. 
The  wonder  is  that  every  inebriate  does  not  poison 
himself  to  death  in  the  period  of  the  debauch. 
The  only  reason,  if  other  things  are  equal,  is  simply 
because  the  lower  brain  centres  can  resist  more 
poison  than  the  higher.  If  the  nerve  centres  which 
control  the  activity  of  the  heart  and  lungs  had  as 
little  resistance  to  the  poison  as  do  those  of  the  will, 
memory,  consciousness,  and  intellect,  the  first  de- 
bauch would  probably  be  the  last.  But  when  the 
stage  of  drunkenness  is  reached  which  destroys  the 
mental  faculties  the  drinking  stops.  If  the  inebri- 
ate has  continued  his  drinking,  as  is  usual,  or  a  small 
glass  at  a  drink,  for  several  hours,  there  may  not  be 
alcohol  enough  in  his  blood  and  brain  to  destroy 
the  centres  of  organic  life,  and  after  a  few  hours  of 
cerebral  paralysis  and  mental  oblivion  conscious- 
ness and  the  mental  faculties  are  liberated. 

In  a  debauch  with  fatal  ending,  as  the  inebriate 
or  drinker  proceeds,  the  nerve  substratum  of  that 
truly  great  faculty,  mental  and  physical  restraint, 
is  the  first  to  fail.  Consciousness,  intellect,  volition, 
and  memory  go  next.  If  sufficient  alcohol  is  taken, 
the  nerve  centres  of  the  respiration  and  the  heart 
fail  and  the  coma  of  alcohol  yields  to  the  eternal 
sleep  of  death. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

INSANITY  FROM  ALCOHOL. 

THE  most  pitiful  and  hopeless  type  of  insanity 
is  called  general  paralysis.  The  brain,  spinal 
cord,  sensory  and  motor  nerves,  and  the  muscles 
gradually  and  successively  become  involved  in  a 
progressive  disease  and  cease  their  functions.  The 
mind  first  exhibits  excitement  and  over-activity  ; 
then  grand  delusions,  maniacal  raving,  and,  finally, 
it  sinks  away  into  imbecility,  idiocy,  and  coma, 
always  followed  by  death. 

The  disease  is  incurable  ;  it  has  but  one  ending. 
Its  special  cause  is  not  yet  verified  or  known,  but 
the  pathological  results  show  degeneration  or  decay 
of  brain  and  nerves. 

The  disease  attacks  alike  the  bad  and  the  good, 
the  wise  and  ignorant,  the  rich  and  poor,  of  either 
sex.  Neither  overwork,  nor  leisure,  nor  idleness 
causes  it,  or  prevents  it,  or  predisposes  to  its  rav- 
ages. It  has  a  specific  cause,  no  doubt  some  spe- 
cies of  microbe  and  its  poison,  which  no  method  of 
life,  or  type  of  life,  or  style  of  living  can  induce  or 
prevent. 

Cases  of  this  type  of  insanity  are  common 
enough  and  within  the  observation  of  every  commu- 

240 


INSANITY   FROM    ALCOHOL.  241 

nity.  Many  celebrated  and  widely  known  persons 
have  been  attacked  by  the  disease.  I  will  note  its 
special  characteristics  more  definitely,  as  I  wish  to 
compare  it,  or  its  symptoms,  with  the  insanity 
caused  by  alcohol. 

The  first  symptoms  of  a  mental  character  are 
generally  those  of  depression.  The  sick  person 
appears  to  be  melancholy.  Then  he  begins  to  lose 
his  sense  of  the  proprieties  of  life.  Me  is  rude  in 
conduct,  inclined  to  be  quarrelsome,  and  loses  his 
personal  restraint.  He  has  no  secrets  and  respects 
none.  His  memory  fails.  His  will  is  weak.  Then 
his  mental  disorder  is  shown  in  his  business  acts. 
He  makes  bad  bargains,  spends  money  lavishly, 
buys  all  he  sees  and  does  not  need,  or  whether  he 
has  need  or  not.  He  is  particularly  abusive  to  his 
family  ;  if  exhibiting  some  power  of  self-control 
away  from  home  and  among  business  associates, 
when  he  reaches  his  home  he  throws  self-control 
away  and  vents  his  harbored  spite  upon  his  terrified 
wife  and  children. 

Following  this  stage  come  delusions  of  grandeur. 
Those  having  a  religious  turn  of  mind  become  saints 
and  even  Saviours  ;  those  politically  inclined  are 
emperors,  kings,  presidents,  and  senators.  These 
wretched  victims  roll  in  imaginary  wealth  and  en- 
tertain schemes  to  buy  continents,  subsidize  states, 
and  incorporate  the  moneyed  wealth  of  the  world. 

Then  the  patient  may  exhibit  symptoms  of 
mania.  He  becomes  violent,  and,  ceasing  to  argue 
or  direct,  essays  physical  force  to  secure  his  desires 


242        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

or  repel  opposition.  He  is  then  arrested  and  im- 
prisoned in  an  asylum. 

But  sooner  or  later  the  signs  of  paralysis  appear. 
The  speech  becomes  difficult  and  thickened,  owing 
to  paralysis  of  the  lips  and  tongue.  The  muscles 
of  the  eyelids  and  face  feel  the  paralysis.  Then 
the  victim  shows  a  staggering,  shuffling  gait.  His 
muscles  become  tremulous  and  shaky.  If  he  tries 
to  write  he  only  makes  a  scrawl  ;  if  he  tried  accus- 
tomed labor  he  fails  and  often  does  damage. 

This  disease  begins  in  the  higher  nerve  centres, 
those  which  are  supposed  to  underlie  mental 
activities.  Then  it  involves  lower  centres  —  those 
of  motion,  sensation,  and  special  sense,  and  the  gen- 
eral functions  of  the  bodily  organs  —  nutrition  and 
secretion. 

But  the  higher  centres  are  destroyed  before  the 
centres  of  the  heart,  the  lungs,  and  general  nutri- 
tion are  deeply  involved.  The  mind  sinks  away 
into  imbecility  and  this  fades  into  coma  and  obliv- 
ion. Complete  paralysis  of  the  muscles  exist  and 
the  patient  is  only  the  semblance  of  a  human  be- 
ing—  a  form  without  intelligence  or  motion. 

The  close  observer  of  a  fit  of  drunkenness  in  a 
periodical  inebriate  will  not  fail  to  see  the  intimate 
likeness  of  the  debauch  to  the  course  of  the  insan- 
ity known  as  general  paralysis.  The  preliminary 
symptoms  of  a  debauch  are  usually  those  of  des- 
pondency and  the  evidences  of  a  weak  will.  This 
is  a  symptom  of  the  disease  of  inebriety.  Then 
the  drinking  begins,  and  the  usual  succession  of 


INSANITY    FROM    ALCOHOL.  2. 13 

mental   exaltation,  mania,  delusion    of  grandeur, 
well  as  imbecility,  paralysis,  and  coma  follow. 

The  alcohol  first  poisons  the  higher  cerebral 
centres.  The  functions  of  the  mind  are  perverted  ; 
perverted  brain  functions,  from  the  standpoint  of 
mind,  can  only  be  understood  or  defined  as  insanity. 
There  is  no  definition  of  insanity,  except  that  it  is 
functional  perversion  of  the  mental  faculties,  as  the 
result  of  direct  or  remote  consequences  of  poison- 
ing or  deformity.  As  the  poison  begins  to  act  the 
inebriate  is  stimulated.  lie  shows  increased  mental 
and  bodily  activity.  lie  is  talkative  and  confiden- 
tial. He  loses  his  personal  restraint.  lie  respi 
no  decency  of  life,  no  confidence,  and  no  trust,  lie 
is  lavish  with  expenses  and  is  inclined  to  have  a 
very  comfortable  opinion  of  himself,  even  if  he 
have  no  well  developed  delusions  of  grandeur.  Often 
he  becomes  maniacal  and  belligerent,  and  is  arrested 
and  imprisoned.  If  he  is  able  to  control  his  most 
debasing  inclinations  among  his  neighbors  or  busi- 
ness friends,  he  throws  aside  restraint  when  he  goes 
home  and  his  family  suffers  correspondingly.  At 
the  close  of  the  debauch  the  inebriate  descends 
from  mania  to  imbecility.  He  is  incoherent,  tongue 
and  lips  are  paralv/.ed,  speech  is  thickened  ;  then 
he  sinks  away  into  coma  with  paralysis  of  all  vol- 
untary muscles — the  semblance  only  of  a  human 
being;  after  several  hours  of  comatose  sleep,  if 
death  do  not  follow,  he  awakes  to  repeat  his  horri- 
ble round  of  debauchery. 


244        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

But  these  conditions,  which  resemble  each  other 
in  all  signs  and  symptoms  and  are  alike  only  in 
relation  to  duration,  are  caused  by  poisons.  In 
both  instances  the  higher  nerve  centres  are  first 
diseased,  then  the  poison  invades  the  lower  nerve 
centres.  In  each  case  excitement,  delusion,  mania, 
imbecility,  coma,  stupor,  and  paralysis  are  the  regu- 
lar succession  of  signs  and  symptoms. 

If  one  condition,  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
mind,  is  insanity,  the  other  is  equally  insanity. 
They  are  alike  in  cause,  in  results,  and  in  termina- 
tion. 

But  all  insanity  is  periodical  in  greater  or  less 
marked  degree.  In  many  insane  people  the  perio- 
dicity is  not  well  marked,  but  is  always  demonstra- 
ble. All  lunatics  have  their  "  lucid  intervals,"  so- 
called,  or,  at  least,  they  exhibit  intervals  of  com- 
paratively less  activity  of  the  manifestations  of  dis- 
ease. In  this  feature  inebriety  resembles  lunacy  of 
other  kinds.  In  inebriety  and  in  all  other  kinds  of 
insanity  the  manifestations  of  the  disease  are  a 
periodical  return  of  the  severe  symptoms  at  periods 
of  greater  or  less  duration,  followed  by  correspond- 
ing periods  of  abatement  of  the  more  active  symp- 
toms of  disease.  In  some  types  of  insanity  relat- 
ing to  duration  of  the  rhythm  or  periodical  mani- 
festations the  "lucid  interval"  is  so  clearly  marked 
and  of  such  long  duration  that  it  is  called  circular 
insanity.  The  meaning  of  this  is  that,  imagining 
the  successive  periods  of  active  lunacy  and  less 
active  to  be  adjusted  on  a  circle,  the  turn  of  the 


INSANITY    FROM    ALCOHOL.  ^5 

circle  brings  around  the  active  insane  manifestations 
at  long-  periods  of  duration,  followed  by  long  periods 
of  lucidity. 

The  technical  definition  of  circular  insanity  is 
that  the  periods  of  acute  mania  are  succeeded  by 
long  seasons  of  melancholy.  These  two  alternating 
conditions  make  up  the  disease.  The  melancholia 
may  not,  in  all  these  cases,  be  marked,  and  many 
lunatics  during  this  stage  are  credited  with  sanity, 
because  they  are  liberated  from  asylums  as  cures; 
or  if  kept  at  home,  they  often  resume  their  occupa- 
tions. They  are,  however,  during  these  intervals, 
insane.  Inebriety  exhibits  the  same  phenomena.  I 
regard  the  sober  interval  between  debauches  as  one 
of  the  normal,  or,  rather,  pathological  conditions  of 
symptoms  of  the  disease.  No  poison  can  act  on 
the  higher  centres  of  the  brain  of  the  cerebro-spinal 
system  in  sufficient  degree  to  cause  perverted  action 
of  the  will,  the  intellect,  sensation,  and  motion  with- 
out causing  perverted  activity  of  the  mental  faculties; 
this  is  insanity  when  considered  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  rnind.  All  symptoms  of  drunkenness  are  the 
symptoms  of  insanity.  If  any  ordinary  observer  of 
human  mental  and  moral  conduct  sees  a  drunken  man 
and  is  made  to  believe  that  the  man  has  not  been 
drinking,  then  the  observer  will  at  once  say  that  the 
man  is  insane.  There  is  no  other  way  to  explain  or 
account  for  the  symptoms. 

The  reason  that  drunkenness  is  periodical  is  be- 
cause when  a  man  begins  to  drink  he  does  it  peri- 
odically. The  nerve  cells  are  educated  to  demand 


246        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

poison  and  reject  it  periodically.  It  is  a  matter  of 
training  or  education.  It  is  impossible  to  drink 
alcohol  without  causing  poisoning  and  a  variation 
of  the  poisoned  cells,  with  the  other  results  subject 
to  the  laws  of  poisoning. 

The  symptoms  of  inebriety  are,  as  I  have  previ- 
ously said,  a  craving  for  liquor,  a  maniacal  debauch, 
followed  by  disgust  for  the  poison,  repentance, 
remorse,  and  a  period  of  sobriety.  All  these  symp- 
toms, from  the  mental  standpoint,  are  insane  perver- 
sions of  the  mental  faculties. 

The  most  deplorable  type  of  insanity  caused  by 
alcohol  is  delirium  tremens.  This  insanity  follows 
a  prolonged  debauch  and  is  one  of  the  methods  by 
which  it  is  brought  to  an  end.  The  immediate 
cause  is  usually  the  inability  of  the  inebriate  to 
longer  consume  alcohol,  and  the  nerve  cells  and 
nerve  centres  suffer  because  all  nutrition,  alcohol 
and  food,  is  impossible  to  be  retained.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  condition  may  be  caused  by  an  over- 
supply  of  alcohol  ;  the  poison  in  fatal  cases  can  be 
found  in  the  brain  and  other  organs  of  the  body 
unchanged. 

But  whatever  condition  prevails  the  acute  insan- 
ity presents  nearly  the  same  symptoms.  The  func- 
tions of  the  mind  are  perverted,  as  are  also  those 
of  sensation  and  motion.  The  higher  centres,  rep- 
resenting the  mind,  the  organs  of  special  sense,  the 
centres  of  muscular  motion  and  those  of  nutrition 
are  perverted  or  abolished  altogether. 

The  insanity  usually   begins  with  hallucinations 


INSANITY    FROM    ALCOHOL.  -M7 

of  special  sense  organs  and  the  vision  is  most  pro- 
nounced in  perverted  action.  The  inebriate  sees 
spectres,  animals,  ghosts,  goblins,  spirits,  dragons, 
devils,  etc.  These  visions  are  so  real  that  delu- 
sions follow  ;  the  victim  believes  what  the  appear- 
ances tell  him  ;  acting  on  the  defensive  he  requires 
restraint  to  prevent  him  from  doing  violence  to  his 
attendants  and  himself.  This  case  of  delirium  is 
insanity  of  mind,  of  special  sense,  of  sensation, 
motion,  and  nutrition.  Mis  physiology  is  a  jumble 
of  incoherence  of  the  mental  and  bodily  faculties 
and  functions.  He  is  a  maniac  of  the  most  violent 
type.  His  special  senses  cannot  represent  true  im- 
pressions to  his  mind,  nor  can  his  mind  receive  them. 
His  muscles  arc;  tremulous  and  his  conduct  and 
movements  uncontrollable.  This  condition  of  sleep- 
less mania  lasts  from  three  to  five  days,  when  re- 
covery or  death  is  the  result  ;  but  while  it  lasts  it  is 
the  clearest  type  of  insanity.  Digestion,  assimila- 
tion, secretion,  excretion,  will,  intellect,  conscious- 
ness, and  special  senses  are  each  and  all  insane. 

It  is  well  known  in  most  cases  of  long  continued 
inebriety  that  secondary  diseases  of  the  nervous 
system  are  the  results.  Alcohol  may  not  be  the 
direct  cause  of  all  these  secondary  diseases,  but  it 
is  the  predisposing  cause.  The  nervous  disorders 
are  characterized  by  a  hardening  or,  else,  degenera- 
tion of  the  nervous  tissues  —  the  brain,  spinal  cord, 
and  the  nerves  of  motion  and  of  sensation.  One 
of  these  remote  results  is  paralysis  of  the  lower 
limbs  from  disease  of  the  spinal  cord.  Then  the 


24  THE    NOX- HEREDITY    OF    INEBRIETY. 

trophic  nerves,  which  nerves  control  the  nutrition  of 
the  body,  become  hardened,  or  degenerated,  or 
inflamed.  As  a  result  of  this  many  organs  of  the 
body  take  on  degenerative  disease.  The  liver,  heart, 
stomach,  lungs,  muscles,  brain,  and  other  organs 
undergo  these  changes  which  depend  upon,  for  their 
first  cause,  the  alcoholic  disease  of  the  nerves  of 
nutrition.  The  organs  are  no  longer  rightly  nour- 
ished and  become  diseased. 

But  disease  of  this  character,  when  it  attacks 
the  brain,  or  even  when  the  brain  is  not  directly 
diseased,  may  cause  insanity  which  is  incurable  and 
permanent  in  character.  The  result  may  be  mania, 
but  is  more  frequently  melancholia.  The  result 
may  be  imbecility  —  even  idiocy. 

It  must  be  understood  that  these  results  are  not 
inebriety  ;  they  are  remote  results  of  inebriety.  A 
man  begins  drinking  for  social  reasons.  When  he 
begins  he  is  not  an  inebriate.  But  he  drinks  to 
intoxication.  He  is  then  insane  for  a  few  hours, 
but  recovers  and  in  time  repeats  the  paroxysm. 
This  leads  to  inebriety,  a  type  of  circular  insanity, 
the  characteristic  of  which  is  a  periodical  craving 
for  liquor.  The  next  step  or  stage  is  the  remote 
lesions,  which  fasten  disease,  and  perhaps  perma- 
nent insanity,  paralysis,  or  degeneration  upon  the 
inebriate  for  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

The  remote  diseases  do  not  cause  the  craving 
for  liquor.  They  are  not  inebriety.  They  are  the 
results  of  inebriety.  If  an  inebriate,  when  in  a 
stage  of  debauch,  falls  and  breaks  his  arm,  the 


INSANITY   FROM   ALCOHOL.  249 

broken  bone  is,  in  a  sense,  the  result  of  inebriety, 
but  it  is  no  part  of  the  disease  of  inebriety.  It  is 
no  doubt  true  that  many  of  the  remote  diseases  of 
the  bodily  organs  having  the  character  of  tissiu 
degeneration  are  caused  by  weakening  the  resist- 
ance of  the  bodily  organs  to  the  assaults  of  the 
microbe  of  disease,  rather  than  to  the  direct  action 
of  alcohol.  The  cure  of  the  craving  for  liquor,  or 
the  inebriety,  does  not  cure  the  remote  diseases 
caused  by  alcohol,  neither  do  these  diseases  prevent 
the  cure  of  inebriety.  The  relapses  are  not  apt  to 
occur,  however,  in  those  who  are  victims  of  insanity 
from  the  secondary  lesions  caused  by  alcohol. 
These  persons  will  resume  drinking,  not  because 
they  have  a  craving  for  liquor,  but  simply  because 
thev  are  insane. 

The  social  relations  of  the  insanity  of  inebriety 
are  indeed  complex.  The  social  results  are  truly 
most  wretched.  All  other  causes  together  operate 
less  in  bringing  domestic  unhappiness  and  misery 
than  does  the  lunacy  of  drink.  The  insane  inebri- 
ate's family  are  the  sufferers.  Thev  suffer  from 
poverty,  direct  abuse,  often  murder,  and  from  social 
and  moral  degradation.  The  inebriate's  wife  braves 
the  chances  of  violent  death,  of  poverty,  and  of 
certain  domestic  misery  in  being  compelled  to  be 
the  keeper  of  a  lunatic.  Society  licenses  the  cause 
of  this  insanity,  but  uses  no  method  to  prevent  the 
result  of  the  insanity  upon  the  family  of  the  inebri- 
ate. No  inebriate  should  be  tolerated  by  any  com- 
munity. He  is  an  insane  man  with  homicidal  and 


250        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

suicidal  tendencies.  Other  insane  people  are  taken 
care  of  for  their  own  safety  and  that  of  their  fami- 
lies and  for  the  public  good. 

Society  cannot  deny  the  insanity  of  the  inebri- 
ate, but  is  slow  to  acknowledge  the  truth,  because 
drinking  is  so  universal  a  custom,  and  because  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  people  are  inebriates.  The 
time  must  come  when  inebriety  will  not  be  tolerated, 
no  matter  how  mild  the  type  of  the  disease  ;  public 
sentiment  and  the  laws  will  compel  the  inebriates 
of  all  civilized  communities  to  seek  the  means  of 
cure. 

The  most  important  subject  in  political  economy, 
ethics,  and  religion  is  inebriety. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

IS  THE   DRINK  HABIT  A   VICE  OR  A  DISEASE? 

FROM  tlir    biological    standpoint    the   discussion 
of  the  question   whether   drinking  is  a  vice  or 
a  crime   is   superfluous.      However,    it   is    before-    the 
people  and  I  will    consider  it  in    relation  to  its  bear- 
ings. 

To  the  physiologist  it  can  have  but  one  reply. 
The  physiologist  and  pathologist  know  that  disr 
is  physiology  modified  by  deformity,  injury,  or  a 
poison.  The  resultant  of  either  of  these  for- 
resisted  by  a  physiological  force,  is  what  causes  a 
disease,  or  any  disease.  Now,  reversing  the  propo- 
sition, we  find  that  alcohol  is  a  poison  and  that  it  is 
resisted  by  whatever  physiology  it  comes  in  contact 
with  when  in  the  body,  and  hence  alcoholism  is  a 
disease.  The  solution  of  the  problem  must  then 
read  :  Whenever  a  man  has  the  drink  habit,  by  rea- 
son of  alcoholism,  the  habit  is  a  disease  or  the 
result  of  a  disease.  This  covers  the  ground  so  far 
as  alcoholism  is  concerned.  But  speaking  from  the 
material  basis  we  must  account  for  the  mass  of 
drinkers  and  drinking;  and  as  comparatively  few  of 
the  drinkers  have  alcoholism,  a  reason  for  the  con- 
sumption of  seas  of  alcohol  must  vet  be  given.  I 
will  consider  this  question  later. 

251 


252        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

But  I  wish  to  consider  the  drink  habit  further  in 
relation  to  the  believers  of  the  doctrine  that  drink- 
ing is  a  moral  or  rather  spiritual  vice,  or  those 
reformers  who  work  on  material  lines  by  spirit 
forces.  I  mean  the  Christian  endeavorers  in  this 
field  of  reform  ;  the  people  who  argue  that  drink- 
ing is  a  vice,  because  they  want  to  cure  the  vice  by 
atonement  and  forgiveness"  and  to  work  reform  by 
creating  a  faith  in  the  curative  power  of  religion  or 
its  personal  representative. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  religious  belief,  or  faith,  or 
dominant  ideas  will  prevent  even  an  alcoholic  from 
drinking,  or  even  prevent  the  masses  from  drinking; 
but  drinking  is  universal  throughout  Christendom. 
If  I  were  advising  the  treatment  of  drunkenness  by 
religion  I  should  certainly  recommend  the  religion 
of  Mahomet.  I  need  not  give  the  reason  ;  every- 
body will  know  the  reason. 

I  have  stated  that  alcoholics  drink  because  they 
are  alcoholics,  but  that  not  all  drinkers  are  alco- 
holics. A  greater  part  of  the  liquor  of  this  world  is 
drank  by  men  and  women  who  are  not  alcoholics, 
do  not  become  intoxicated  or  diseased  to  any  great 
extent,  and  are  not  the  subject  of  prayers  or  curses 
by  reason  of  the  liquor  they  drink  ;  yet  I  venture 
to  suggest  that  there  are  many  wine-cellars  in  this 
country  dedicated  to  secrecy  at  least.  But  looking 
at  drinking  as  it  is  I  will  try  to  account  for  the 
habits  of  the  people  who  drink  from  other  causes 
than  drunkenness  and  its  diseases. 

In  the  first  place  people  drink  because  they  have 


IS  THE  DRINK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE?     253 

other  diseases.  Ever  since  the  landing  of  Noah 
after  the  flood  and  the  Cana  wedding  alcohol  has 
stood  by  the  sick  bed  and  has  held  the  lamp  for 
feasters  and  revelers.  It  has  waited  upon  birth, 
sickness,  injury,  pain,  joy,  marriage,  revelry,  and 
death  alike.  If  drinking  is  a  vice  only,  then  the 
prescription  is  a  crime.  Alcohol  is  the  instinctive 
remedy  for  injury,  for  sudden  illness,  for  pain.  It 
is  not  the  least  among  the  remedies  used  by  phvsi- 
cians,  and  is  acknowledged  to  be  beneficial  and  an 
antidote  to  disease  and  disease  infection.  As  a 
medicine  alcohol  antagonizes  disease  poisons  which 
depress  the  action  of  the  heart.  It  antagonizes  the 
physiological  effects  of  the  ptomaines  of  patho- 
genic microbes.  It  antagonizes  the  poison  of 
sewer  gas  in  the  physiological  perversions.  It 
antagonizes  fatigue,  it  antagonizes  bodily  waste, 
due  either  to  labor  or  disease.  It  furnishes  heat 
force,  which  is  converted  into  work,  labor,  and  other 
physiological  force.  It  anaesthetizes  sorrow,  it  stim- 
ulates joy,  it  kills  microbes,  it  destroys  ptomaines,  it 
prevents  the  overformation  of  poisonous  leucomaines 
during  labor  and  during  fever.  Why,  then,  need  we 
try  to  account  further  for  the  drink  habit  ?  Alcohol 
is  medicine  for  rich  and  poor.  It  takes  fatigue  on  its 
own  shoulders  and  climbs  the  hills  of  toil  with  the 
workman.  It  sits  up  late  with  the  genius  and  is 
consumed  along  with  the  midnight  oil  while  dramas 
and  poetry  are  written,  machines  are  invented,  for- 
tunes are  discovered,  and  campaigns  are  planned. 
If  alcohol  nerves  the  arm  of  the  murderer,  it  also 


254        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

nerves  the  heart  of  the  fever  patient.  If  alcohol  is 
the  genius  of  the  gambling  den,  it  is  also  the 
emblem  of  the  blood  in  the  commemoration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  If  it  is  crime,  it  is  also  sacrament. 
If  it  is  poison,  it  is  also  medicine.  If  it  murders, 
it  also  saves.  If  it  causes  disease,  it  also  heals.  If 
it  is  a  law-breaker,  it  makes  the  laws.  If  it  is  an 
outcast,  it  is  also  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen. 
Alcohol  carried  in  a  little  tin  pail  by  a  forlorn  and 
ragged  child  is  degradation  ;  alcohol  in  a  "  new 
bottle"  covered  by  the  valued  cobwebs  of  age  and 
the  dark  cellar,  borne  by  the  butler  to  the  table  of 
the  millionaire,  is  aristocracy.  When  the  man  of 
the  family  is  a  drunkard  and  the  wife's  wages  go  to 
the  saloon-keeper,  then  alcohol  turns  the  happiness 
of  home  to  poverty.  But  alcohol  pays  the  pen- 
sions of  the  veterans  who  saved  the  country  and 
piles  up  the  surplus  in  the  treasury  whereby  Wall 
street  is  saved,  the  national  debt  is  paid,  and  great 
"appropriations"  are  successfully  carried  out  and 
the  new  navy  constructed. 

But  in  addition  to  the  necessity  of  religious 
observance  the  drink  habit  is  bolstered  by  the  con- 
tagion of  example.  Habit  is  contagious.  It  is  not 
transferred  by  a  germ  or  microbe,  but  it  is  trans- 
ferred by  imitation.  Nervous  diseases  are  trans- 
ferred and  propagated  among  the  people  in  a  simi- 
lar manner.  If  one  girl  in  a  boarding  school  has 
hysteria,  the  disease  may  be  spread  by  this  sort  of 
contagion.  When  one  sinner  at  a  camp-meeting 
has  convulsions,  the  disease  is  likely  to  spread. 


IS  THE  DRINK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE?     255 

Whole  states  and  small  communities,  boarding- 
houses  and  seminaries  have  in  this  manner  adopted 
the  convulsion  method  of  nervous  activity.  Mo- 
hammedanism, Buddhism,  and  Mormonism,  as  well 
as  other  religious  beliefs,  were  propagated  in  the 
same  manner.  Popular  manias  have  also  been  prop- 
agated likewise.  The  crusades  were  inaugurated 
by  such  a  movement.  The  children's  crusade,  a 
similar  affair  prevalent  among  the  haloes  in  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  centurv,  was  a  conta- 
gious mania.  The  tulip  mania  originated  in  Hol- 
land, that  country  of  dikes  and  wooden  shoes  and 
hard  heads,  and  spread  all  over  Kurope  in  1636  and 
1637.  1°  those  days  a  tulip  bulb  would  sell  for  the 
price  of  a  prince's  ransom,  could  pay  for  a  princi- 
pality, could  emancipate  a  slave,  empty  bank  vaults, 
rob  beauty  and  vanity  of  their  jewels,  and  make  and 
ruin  fortunes. 

In  our  own  day,  in  addition  to  the  mania  of  con- 
vivial drinking,  we  are  probably  just  entering  the 
trotting-horse  mania.  The  trotting-horse  is  the 
noblest  of  all  animals,  but  the  utility  of  trotting 
does  not  warrant  the  prices  this  animal  will  already 
bring.  Axtell  sold  for  $105,000.  Any  "fashiona- 
bly bred"  animal  with  a  record  at  three  years  of 
2:15  can  be  sold  for  from  $20,000  to  $75,000.  The 
effort  is  to  get  the  two-minute  trotter, —  a  purely 
contagious  sentiment  from  the  standpoint  of  utility 
—  and  by  the  time  the  four-year-old  two-minute 
trotters  appear,  as  they  certainly  will,  they  may  sell 
for  half  a  million  and  upwards.  What  wonder  is  it, 


256        THE    NON-HEREDITY  OF    INEBRIETY. 

then,  if  the  drinking  custom  has  been  a  contagious 
mania  for  centuries  throughout  Christendom  ;  that 
the  custom  is  as  universal  as  Christianity  and  the 
institutions  of  governments.  Drinking  is  as  uni- 
versal as  devotion  and  the  franchise.  The  drink- 
habit  has  permeated  society  by  contagion  and  other 
causes  so  like  a  leaven  that  it  is  the  contempora- 
neous institution  of  all  the  works  of  humanity  and 
the  wealth  of  nations.  If  the  drink  habit  peoples 
the  almshouses  and  the  prisons,  it  is  at  home  under 
the  great  rotunda  at  Washington.  If  it  fills  the 
coffers  of  the  wicked,  it  also  pays  the  rental  of 
many  houses  owned  by  the  virtuous,  even  by  men 
high  up  in  the  political  and  religious  synagogues. 

But  not  the  least  among  the  causes  of  the  habit 
of  drinking  is  heredity.  I  will  mention  the  fact 
here,  but  I  will  explain  the  relation  more  com- 
pletely further  on.  I  will  say  here,  however,  that  I 
regard  the  hereditary  drinkers  as  the  so-called  tem- 
perate drinkers.  I  do  not  consider  inebriety  as  a 
necessarily  hereditary  disease.  Heredity  protects 
people  rather  than  destroys  them.  The  known  laws 
of  heredity  build  up  a  protection  or  an  immunity  to 
poisons  of  all  kinds.  Men  acquire  immunity  from 
diseases  by  heredity.  The  men  who  are  exposed  to 
typhoid,  measles,  diphtheria,  small-pox,  scarlet  fever, 
typhus,  etc.,  and  do  not  take  the  diseases,  are  the 
men  who  have  acquired  the  power  of  resisting  these 
poisons.  They  acquire  this  power  either  directly 
by  the  action  of  the  poisons  themselves,  or  they 
acquire  the  resistance  from  their  poison-leavened 


IS  THE  DRIXK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE?     257 

ancestry  by  the  law  of  heredity.  The  law  of 
heredity,  as  a  factor  of  natural  selection,  has 
brought  mankind  out  of  the  wilderness  and  bonds 
of  iniquity  imposed  by  poisons,  or  is  bringing  them 
out. 

Consumptives  do  not  inherit  consumption,  but 
they  are  those  who  have  not  yet  acquired  by  hered- 
ity a  resistance  to  the  microbe  of  this  disease. 
Inebriates  are  those  who  cannot  oppose  the  poison- 
ing of  alcohol  by  means  of  the  vital  resistance  of 
their  tissue  cells.  Any  native  Indian  or  Australian 
or  Hottentot,  if  given  whisky,  will  become  a  drunk- 
ard. Not  one  Christian  American  or  European  in  a 
thousand  will  become  a  drunkard  under  precisely 
like  conditions.  The  reason  is  that  the  European 
and  American  inherit  a  tolerance  to  the  poison  from 
a  long  line  of  poisoned  ancestry. 

\Yith  one  exception,  which  I  will  explain,  hered- 
ity has  but  one  method  of  propagating  disease. 
The  law  or  force  of  heredity  saves  people  from  dis- 
ease. Immunity  from  the  action  of  poisons  is  only 
given  by  the  action  of  poisons  themselves,  and  this 
immunity  so  acquired  is  what  is  transmitted  by 
heredity.  The  man  who  can  inhale  sewer  gas  con- 
taining tubercle  bacilli  and  escape  consumption  is 
he  whose  ancestors  have  so  long  been  poisoned  by 
this  microbe  that  they  acquired  an  immunity  to  the 
poison.  Now  this  man  can,  very  likely,  "put  a 
glass  of  old  rye  under  his  vest"  every  morning  or 
before  dinner,  to  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  the  exhilara- 
tion therefrom,  and  never  lose  his  "self-control,"  as 


258     »  THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

he  proudly  calls  it  ;  which  habit  he  may  keep  up 
during  his  natural  life  without  "alcoholism"  or 
drunkenness,  or  any  of  the  lesions  alcohol  may 
cause.  It  is  not  because  this  man  has  more  self- 
control  or  Christianity  than  other  men.  It  is  sim- 
ply that  he  inherits  more  vital  resistance  to  this 
poison. 

But  now,  to  conclude  the  argument  on  the  vice 
or  disease  relations  of  the  drinking  habit,  let  us 
further  consider  our  same  individual  who  can  resist 
both  the  poison  of  the  microbe  of  tubercle  and  the 
poisoning  of  alcohol.  Is  it  a  vice  for  this  man  to 
swallow  tubercle  germs  and  whisky  with  his  break- 
fast or  not  ?  In  one  case  it  is,  perhaps  ;  but  in 
another  it  is  not.  So  long  as  tubercle  germs  and 
alcohol  exist  the  only  method  of  acquiring  an  im- 
munity and  keeping  it  up  must  be  by  more. or  less 
continual  exposure  to  both  poisons — unless  a  sub- 
stitute cure  is  discovered.  If  this  man  is  no  longer 
exposed  to  consumption  poison,  and  his  children 
are  exempt,  in  time  they  will  again  begin  to  have 
the  disease.  The  same  rule  will  hold  good  with 
alcohol.  The  question  will  come  up  now  :  If  there 
were  no  alcohol  in  the  world  and  no  consumption 
microbes,  then  could  all  this  trouble  be  avoided? 
Most  certainly  it  could,  but  the  most  short-sighted 
people  on  earth  are  the  prohibitionists.  The  reason 
is  easy  to  give.  These  people  do  not  seem  to  know 
that  the  poisons  of  this  world  are  antagonistic  to 
each  other  ;  that  the  poisons  of  disease  are  antago- 
nized by  so-called  remedies  which  are  also  poisons. 


IS  THE  DRINK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE?    259 

They  forget  that  though  alcohol  is  a  poison,  it  is 
also  a  remedy  for  the  poison  of  disease.  The  diffi- 
culty of  prohibition  arises  from  the  fact  that  the 
public  will  not  be  deprived  of  a  remedy  which  is  so 
convenient  and  easily  manufactured.  Call  it  charm 
and  delusion,  and  drunkenness  a  vice  and  indul- 
gence, if  you  will,  but  the  fact  remains  that  if  pro- 
hibition ever  succeeds  it  will  be  after  the  banish- 
ment of  the  infections  of  disease  and  their  poisons. 
If  the  good  people  who  are  agitating  prohibition 
would  turn  their  attention  to  sanitation  and  prohibit 
disease  infection,  the  question  of  alcohol  prohibi- 
tion would  take  care  of  itself.  You  cannot  pro- 
hibit ether,  chloroform,  morphia,  alcohol,  or  the 
long  list  of  antiseptic  poisons  from  the  use  of  man 
while  injuries  and  surgery  and  disease  poisons  in- 
habit the  earth.  Yet  ether  and  morphia  and  alcohol, 
arsenic,  cocaine,  chloroform,  and  other  poisonous 
remedies  are  used  as  intoxicants  bv  poisoned  peo- 
ple, who  have  learned  to  love  them  and  become 
their  slaves.  Whv  not  prohibit  them  all  ?  The 
answer  is  that  while  disease  is  in  the  world  the  peo- 
ple will  not  allow  these  poisons  to  be  prohibited,  no 
matter  how  much  more  injurious  the  remedv  may 
be  than  the  disease. 

When  an  astronomer  studies  stars,  moons,  planets, 
and  nebuke.  in  their  phvsical  relations  of  mass  and 
motion,  he  applies  the  well-known  general  force  of 
gravitv  and  the  law  of  attraction  in  order  to  under- 
stand these  relations  and  be  able  to  explain  what  he 
learns.  When  pathologists  investigate  a  disease,  do 


260        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

they  do  it  in  the  light  of  the  general  laws  of  biology? 
I  find  that  they  do  not.  I  do  not  happen  to  know  of 
a  pathological  work,  or  a  book  on  physiology,  written 
by  any  person  who  appears  to  have  ever  read  the 
biological  law  of  natural  selection,  or  who  appreci- 
ates the  laws  of  organic  evolution  in  relation  to  the 
subject.  The  pathologist,  writing  on  consumption, 
will  say  that  the  disease  is  hereditary,  citing  the 
history  of  many  families,  perhaps,  to  prove  his 
position.  In  fact,  this  idea  is  so  firmly  grounded  in 
the  public  mind  that  even  state  boards  of  health 
and  life  insurance  companies  believe  that  consump- 
tion is  an  hereditary  disease.  Likewise,  writers  on 
the  pathology  of  alcoholism  declare  that  the  disease 
is  hereditary  and  cite  notable  families  who  all  be- 
came drunkards  as  the  example  and  proof.  Now 
these  writers  omit  a  factor  or  two  from  the  prob- 
lems. They  do  not  know  the  relation  of  poison  to 
the  tissue  cells  and  the  acquirement  of  a  tolerance 
to  the  poison  by  variation  of  the  cell  so  poisoned. 
It  is  this  variation  in  either  case  which  is  trans- 
mitted by  heredity,  and  it  follows,  therefore,  that 
the  inheritance  of  all  disease,  in  time,  is  an  immu- 
nity from  poisons  and  not  the  transmission  of 
diseases. 

I  hold  that  alcohol  acts  by  poisoning,  produc- 
ing certain  modified  physiology  relating  to  coordi- 
nation, motion,  and  sensation,  recognized  by  every- 
body as  "  intoxication."  This  condition  is  acute  or 
chronic,  so-called,  corresponding  with  the  fact 
whether  the  poison  is  continued  from  day  to  day  or 


IS  THE  DRIXK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE?    261 

is  taken  for  only  a  short  time.  Chronic  alcoholism 
is  simply  a  continued  series  of  "drunks,"  or  acute 
intoxications. 

Alcohol  poisons  the  tissues  having  least  resist- 
ance to  its  action,  which  are  the  nerve  tissues.  It 
is  this  fact,  viewed  obvcrsely  by  certain  writers,  who 
say  that  alcohol  has  an  "  elective  or  selective  affin- 
ity "  for  the  nerve  tissues.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  selective  affinity  in  pathology,  or  in  the  relation 
of  any  poison  to  any  tissue.  Xu  tissue  "selects"  any 
poison,  but  they  all  resist  it  with  greater  or  less 
success. 

Alcohol    being   taken    in  "  <  what   i 

consumed  by  oxygen  and  converted  into  heat  and 
correlated  into  cell  energy  circulates  in  the  blood, 
and,  of  course,  readies  all  tissues.  It  coagulates 
albumen  to  a  certain  extent,  perhaps,  but  its  effects 
are  on  the  general  physiology.  Jt  modifies  cellular 
nutrition,  reproduction,  and  special  function  and 
causes  a  variation  in  the  cell  of  special  character. 

This  variation  of  the  cell  gives  the  cell  a  greater 
or  less  amount  of  increased  resistance  to  the  poi- 
son. This  law  holds  good  with  every  poison  and  in 
all  poisoning. 

But  before  going  further  I  will  refer  to  the  bio- 
logical laws  of  natural  selection,  for  the  action  of 
no  poison  can  be  understood  without  an  explana- 
tion of  these  laws.  The  chosen  people  of  God  are 
saved  and  brought  out  of  the  wilderness  of  sin  and 
poisons  by  the  following  factors  :  Variation,  hered- 
itary transmission  by  descent,  and  atavism.  The 


262        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

meaning  of  these  factors  will  be  understood  as  I 
proceed  with  the  explanation  in  relation  to  alco- 
holic pathology.  Now  the  alcohol  is  present  with 
the  nerve  cells.  The  nutrition,  reproduction,  and 
special  function  are  perverted.  It  is  the  perversion 
of  the  special  function  of  the  cell  which  causes  the 
general  phenomena  of  drunkenness.  It  is  the  per- 
verted nutrition  which  causes  the  variation  in  the 
cell,  provided  the  cell  survives  as  an  organism.  If 
a  debauch  lasts  several  days,  the  man  on  the  first 
day  will  make  himself  "blind  drunk"  on  a  pint  of 
whisky  ;  when  he  wakes  the  next  morning  he  can 
drink  a  pint  of  whisky  before  breakfast  and  go 
down  to  the  table  steady  enough,  although  smelling 
badly  and  showing  the  poisonous  effects  of  the 
day's  debauch.  The  second  pint  does  not  make 
him  drunk.  It  requires  a  quart  or  more  during  the 
day  to  put  him  in  the  condition  of  the  first  evening. 
Now  why  is  this  ?  There  is  no  possible  way  of 
explaining  the  fact  except  by  the  law  of  natural 
selection.  The  acute  poisoning  by  the  first  pint  of 
liquor  has  created  a  tolerance  or  an  increased  resist- 
ance to  the  poison.  To  get  drunk  again  a  larger 
quantity  must  be  taken  the  next  day.  What  hap- 
pens next  is  the  hereditary  transmission  of  some- 
thing. If  the  cells  acquire  something,  they  must 
transmit  it.  Like  produces  like,  subject  to  varia- 
tions during  the  reproduction.  In  this  case  the 
thing  acquired  by  the  cell  and  which  it  transmits  is 
the  variation  which  gives  the  new  cells  a  greater 
power  of  resisting  the  poison  and  not  the  presence 


IS  THE  DRINK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE?    263 

of  the  poison  ;  for  its  presence  is  now  a  necessity, 
but  with  an  increased  power  of  resisting  the  poison- 
ous action.  If  the  quantity  of  alcohol  were  not 
increased  beyond  the  power  of  resistance  gained  by 
the  variation  of  cells,  the  debauchee  would  not 
show  further  symptoms  of  "  intoxication  ;"  nor 
would  there  be  further  poisoning,  provided,  of 
course,  all  the  tissues  of  the  body  had  acquired 
an  equal  resistance. 

The  tissue  cells  are  now,  such  as  live  at  all,  nat- 
urally selected  to  exist  in  the  presence  of  alcohol. 
But  this  poison  is  now  a  necessity;  let  us  see  why. 

If  an  animal  is  "selected"  by  nature  to  li\ 
grass,  we  may  assume  that  his  teeth  are  adapted  to 
browse  and  graze,  and  that  the  form  of  the  teeth  is 
a  variation  from  that  of  a  former  type  of  animal 
which  lived  on  some  other  diet.  If  a  grass-eating 
animal  begins  to  eat  flesh,  it  may  in  time  undergo  a 
variation  of  teeth  and  stomach,  have  tusks  and  dif- 
ferent molars,  and  lose  its  type  of  stomach.  What 
will  happen  now,  if  the  environment  of  these  ani- 
mals is  suddenly  changed  r  Suppose  there  is  no 
grass  for  the  herbivora  nor  prey  for  the  carnivora. 
Suppose  they  are  given  a  new  kind  of  food  ;  then 
a  new  variation  must  be  undergone  if  the  animals 
live  ;  but  the  change  would  be  anything  but  agr 
able  and  would  illustrate  a  feature  of  the  struggle 
for  existence.  What  would  these  animals  do  if 
they  could  ?  The  grass-eater  would  wade  up  to 
his  eyes  in  fields  of  waving  grasses  and  the  flesh- 
eater  would  agonizingly  dream  of  the  cattle  on  a 


264        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

thousand  hills  and  have  an  appetite  that  a  whole 
menagerie  could  not  satisfy.  How  is  it  with  the 
debauchee  ?  He  must  have  alcohol.  The  reason 
is  that  when  a  tissue  cell  acquires  a  power  of  resist- 
ing a  poison  by  variation  of  its  type,  the  presence 
of  the  poison  is  necessary  in  order  to  carry  on  its 
special  functions.  If  the  poison  is  withdrawn,  then 
the  cell  must  undergo  a  new  variation  to  enable  it 
to  live  on  food.  In  this  condition  of  things  alco- 
hol is  more  or  less  a  food  for  the  cell.  If  the  alco- 
hol is  withdrawn  and  a  new  food  supplied,  a  new 
variation  is  required,  and  amid  the  variations  to  suit 
new  conditions  starvation  may  be  the  result. 

Cells  as  well  as  individuals  transmit  whatever 
they  acquire  as  part  of  their  likeness  in  reproduc- 
tion. Suppose  each  generation  in  a  family,  for  one 
hundred  generations,  is  subject  to  alcohol.  By 
the  law  of  heredity  these  people  would  acquire  a 
great  tolerance  to  the  poison  of  alcohol.  These 
are  the  people  who  consume  the  greater  part  of  the 
liquor  drank.  They  keep  the  wine  cellars  and 
drink  alcohol  in  wine  or  beer  at  the  table.  They 
are  not  known  as  drunkards.  They  have  the  power 
of  "  stopping  when  they  get  enough,"  and  do  not 
get  drunk.  Their  cells  have  undergone,  by  the 
influence  of  heredity  and  variation,  an  evolution 
which  enables  them  to  live  on  food  and  alcohol 
and  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  the  table  and  sideboard 
without  imminent  danger. 

It  is  clear  that  heredity  in  alcoholism,  by  trans- 
mitting the  power  of  resisting  alcohol,  acquired  by 


IS  THE  DRINK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE?    265 

conflict  with  the  poison,  does  not  cause  inebriety  by 
heredity.  The  writers  who  cite  their  little  cases 
wherein  a  man's  son  and  the  man  are  both  drunk- 
ards do  not  know  what  heredity  is  or  its  scope  when 
they  limit  its  horizon  to  their  narrow  view.  The 
fact  is  that  this  family  has  not  yet  acquired  an 
immunity  to  this  poison  ;  the  son  probably  drinks 
for  the  same  convivial  reason  that  his  father  did, 
provided  he  has  no  other  disease.  I  do  not  know, 
of  course,  how  many  generations  are  required  to 
gain  an  immunity  to  alcohol,  but  I  do  know  what 
the  laws  of  heredity  are. 

The  same  law  holds  good  in  disease  poisons — 
the  ptomaines.  Take  consumption,  a  disease  which 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  class  as  a  hereditary  dis- 
ease, as  estimated  by  some  people.  The  disease  can 
be  directly  transmitted  to  the  foetus  by  the  mother  ; 
but  all  heredity  in  consumption  consists  of  weak- 
resistance  to  the  ptomaine  of  the  germ.  One  per- 
son in  seven  dies  of  this  disease.  The  disease  is 
contagious  and  all  people  are  equally  exposed. 
Why  do  not  all  people  take  disease  ?  Simply  be- 
cause all  families,  except  one  in  seven,  have  acquired 
an  immunity  to  the  poison  of  the  ptomaines.  The 
long  line  of  consumption-afflicted  ancestry  has  cre- 
ated a  tolerance  to  the  poison  of  this  disease.  The 
persons  having  the  immunity  transmit  a  like  immu- 
nity, while  the  persons  having  a  weak  resistance 
transmit  that. 

The    pessimist    is    a    short-sighted,    or    narrow- 
sighted  man.     This   man  has   no   periscopic   vision 


266        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

either.  He  can  see  the  figures  or  factors  that  are 
just  before  him,  but  he  cannot  see  all  the  factors 
of  any  problem.  Hence  his  conclusions  are  vain 
and  his  opinions  pessimistic.  The  optimist  can  see 
more  than  one  man  and  his  son  in  the  problem  of 
heredity.  He  looks  along  the  family  line  or  even 
the  history  of  a  nation  for  ages  and  generations. 
He  sees  that  natural  selection  brings  nations  out  of 
the  bondage  of  species,  parasitism,  disease,  sin,  poi- 
son, poverty,  ignorance,  and  immorality  into  civiliza- 
tion. Heredity  cannot  cause  evolution  and  bring 
people  out  of  this  bondage  by  transmitting  evil 
alone.  Heredity  alone  ,by  transmitting  likeness  might 
not  improve  species  ;  but  heredity  looks  out  for  the 
fruits  of  victory  and  transmits  an  increment  of 
variation  with  every  generation,  which  helps  the 
race  in  every  relation.  It  is  natural  selection  that 
gives  people  an  immunity  from  poisons  ;  that  adapts 
plants  and  animals  to  their  environment  ;  that  ena- 
bles them  to  resist  diseases  and  to  obtain  a  living 
and  to  live. 

The  next  factor  of  natural  selection  is  atavism. 
The  meaning  of  this  is  that  it  is  a  reversal  or  return 
to  a  former  type.  If  a  debauchee  is  forced  to 
abstain  from  alcohol  by  his  stomach,  his  nerve  cells 
are  placed  in  a  new  condition  or  environment  ;  if  the 
latter  is  like  that  which  preceded  the  debauch,  then 
the  cells  will  in  due  course  of  time  assume  their 
former  type,  or  nearly  so.  This  is  atavism,  or  vari- 
ation backwards.  It  is  always  the  environment  or 
something  in  the  environment — food,  or  poison,  or 


IS  THE  DRINK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE  ?   267 

station,  or  enemies  —  which  causes  variation  in  cells 
of  animals  and  plants. 

A  distinguishing  characteristic  of  alcoholic  poi- 
soning is  the  rapidity  of  its  action  upon  the  cells. 
The  cells  will  acquire  a  variation  enabling  them  to 
tolerate  poisonous  doses  of  alcohol  in  twenty-four 
hours.  On  the  other  hand  the  recovery  of  the 
poisonous  cells,  which  simply  means  their  atavistic 
variation,  requires  only  a  few  weeks'  time,  without 
treatment.  The  rule  is  very  different  in  morphia 
poisoning.  The  acquirement  of  the  "  morphia 
habit,"  or  the  variation  of  cells  caused  by  morphia, 
which  enables  them  to  tolerate  the  "drug,"  is  brought 
on  much  slower.  It  is  next  to  impossible  for  an 
opium  user  to  control  his  "appetite"  for  morphia. 
The  atavism  of  the  cells  is  so  slow  after  the  drug  is 
withdrawn,  if  there  is  no  cure,  that  the  patient  will 
relapse.  Poison  differs  very  greatly  in  this  respect. 
Chloroform,  ether,  and  alcohol  are  very  rapid  in 
poisonous  action.  The  cells  quickly  acquire  their 
variation,  and  they  soon  lose  it.  The  ptomaines  of 
disease  act  more  slowly.  Two  or  more  weeks  are 
required  in  each  of  the  acute  diseases  to  establish  a 
cell  variation,  giving  a  tolerance  to  the  poison,  and 
the  cells  may  hold  this  variation  many  years.  While 
the  tolerance  lasts  the  person  enjoys  an  immunity 
from  the  disease. 

I  have  now  illustrated  the  factors  of  natural 
selection  relating  to  poisons,  with  special  reference 
to  alcohol.  I  will  ask,  Is  there  any  doubt,  scien- 
tifically based,  that  natural  selection  is  a  true  gen- 


268        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

eral  law  in  biology  ?  If  it  is  true,  is  there  any  other 
method  of  explaining  the  relations  of  poisons  to 
animals  and  plants  ?  There  has  always  been  too 
much  "  other  worldness  "  used  in  the  explanation  of 
biological  phenomena.  Cosmas,  who  was  startled 
by  the  mechanical  theories  springing  up  in  his  day, 
the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  relating  to  astro- 
nomical motion,  attempted  to  supplant  all  such  here- 
sies by  the  spiritual  theory  that  the  angels  were 
kept  very  busy  shoving  the  moving  planets  about. 
Most  of  our  temperance  reformers  are  equally  spir- 
itually minded  relating  to  the  use  of  liquor  and  its 
abuse. 

I  will  now  apply  the  law  of  selection  to  the 
acute  diseases  and  see  if  they  can  thereby  explain. 
All  these  diseases,  small-pox,  plague,  typhus,  ty- 
phoid, consumption,  diphtheria,  cholera,  yellow  fever, 
and  all  the  rest  of  them,  are  caused  by  poisons 
manufactured  by  microbes.  Let  us  see  if  the  phe- 
nomena of  disease  are  explicable  by  the  law  of  nat- 
ural selection.  Any  observer  will  note  that  in  most 
acute  diseases  the  disease  has  a  definite  period  of 
duration  ;  then,  if  the  victim  is  not  destroyed,  he 
recovers,  his  damaged  anatomy  is  repaired,  and,  for 
a  longer  or  shorter  period,  he  has  an  immunity  from 
his  disease,  whatever  it  may  be.  The  reason  that 
the  person  is  susceptible  to  attack  at  first  is  because 
he  has  no  immunity  to  begin  with.  If  a  chil-d  has 
scarlet  fever  or  measles  the  duration  is  very  defi- 
nite, and  at  the  end  of  a  certain  time  the  disease 
will  terminate.  The  disease  terminates  simply  be- 


IS  THE  DRINK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE  ?  269 

cause  the  cells,  in  consequence  of  their  battle  with 
the  ptomaine  poison,  acquire  a  variation  which  ena- 
bles them  to  resist  the  poison.  It  is  impossible  for 
cells  to  be  poisoned  and  live  and  not  acquire  a 
variation  ;  the  nature  of  this  variation  is  always  an 
increased  power  of  resisting  the  poison.  When  the 
cells  can  resist  the  poison  of  any  given  disease, then 
the  disease  must  come  to  an  end. 

If  a  child,  when  it  recovers  from  scarlet  fever  or 
measles,  is  exposed  to  these  diseases  it  will  not 
take  them  —  at  least  for  a  time.  The  reasons  that 
have  been  given  for  the  fact  would  constitut- 
"  curiosity  shop  "  in  medical  literature.  Of  course 
there  can  be  but  one  reason  ;  and  if  natural  selec- 
tion cannot  give  the  reason  then  the  law  is  not  true. 
The  reason  is  simply  because  the  cells  have  acquired 
a  variation  enabling  them  to  resist  the  poison  and 
have  not  yet  lost  the  variation  by  atavism.  In  some 
cases  the  variation  will  last  a  lifetime ;  in  other 
cases  it  goes  sooner.  Sonie  children  will  have  the 
scarlet  fever  once  ;  others  will  have  it  several  times. 
Inoculation  and  vaccination  are  methods  of  pre- 
venting diseases  which  operate  on  this  plan.  The 
virus  used  is  always  the  same  ptomaine  that  causes 
the  disease.  The  poison  creates  a  variation  in  the 
cells  enabling  them  to  resist  the  poison  of  the  dis- 
ease. Small-pox,  anthrax,  chicken  cholera,  swine 
plague,  Texas  fever,  hydrophobia,  and  other  diseases 
are  prevented  in  this  manner. 

Alcoholism  is  an  acute,  or  a  series  of  acute   poi- 
sonings by  alcohol.      I  believe  the  pathology  is  lim- 


270        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

ited  to  this  condition.  Acute  poisoning  means  a 
modification  of  cell  nutrition,  cell  reproduction,  and 
cell  special  function.  The  cell  modification  of  nu- 
trition and  reproduction  causes  a  variation  in  the 
cell.  As  the  cells  which  can  resist  the  poison  the 
least  are  the  brain  cells,  the  modified  special  func- 
tions result  in  the  manifestations  known  as  drunk- 
enness. But  our  school  books  and  medical  journals 
are  filled  with  alcoholic  pathological  nerve  degener- 
ation. Temperance  literature  is  crowded  with  this 
sort  of  pathology,  with  spiritual  cures.  The  trouble 
with  our  reformers,  would  appear  to  be  that  they 
accumulate  more  pathology  than  mustard  seeds  of 
faith  can  reach. 

Alcohol  is  distinct  as  a  poison  from  other  poi- 
sons, especially  the  ptomaines.  It  prevents  degen- 
eration if  it  does  anything.  Large  quantities  of 
alcohol  lower  the  temperature.  Ptomaines  increase 
it  and  cause  fever.  Alcohol  prevents  bodily  waste 
and  the  formation  of  leuqomaines  and  their  poison- 
ous action,  while  ptomaines  will  double  the  amount 
of  cell  destruction  and  double  the  amount  of  excre- 
tion of  carbonic  dioxide  and  urea.  Alcohol  may 
cause  degeneration  of  cells  indirectly,  as  any  poi- 
son may  do,  or  any  condition  of  life  may  do  ;  but 
the  direct  action  of  alcohol,  even  in  poisonous 
doses,  is  as  I  have  indicated  ;  and  there  is  no  proof 
to  the  contrary  and  never  will  be. 

Alcohol  has  always  been  used  as  a  medicine  in 
ptomaine  poisoning,  or  in  fevers.  It  has  never  been 
discarded  in  its  therapeutical  uses  by  any  except 


IS  THE  DRINK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE?    271 

fanatics  who  let  their  prejudices  take  the  place  of 
education.  The  drug  is  verified  as  an  antiseptic  and 
as  a  germitoxic.  Every  symptom  or  pathological 
condition  of  a  fever,  or  ptomaine  poisoning,  is  antag- 
onized by  alcohol.  It  furnishes,  therefore,  what  is 
known  in  scientific  therapeutics  as  the  rational  an- 
tagonism of  symptoms  in  fever.  It  antagonizes 
the  temperature,  the  cell  metabolism  and  waste,  the 
formation  of  leucomaines,  and  it  also  antagonizes 
the  microbe.  But  most  of  all  it  antagonizes  pain. 
In  injuries  alcohol  antagonizes  shock,  pain,  and 
blood  poisoning. 

The  change  produced  in  the  nerve  tissues  by  alco- 
hol, speaking  generally,  is  an  isomeric  change.  It 
is  not  a  degenerative  change.  Degeneration  is  of 
two  kinds,  metamorphosis  and  infiltration.  These 
degenerations  of  metamorphosis  are  numerous  and 
are  known  as  colloid,  nnicoid,  amyloid,  fatty,  etc. 
These  metamorphoses  arc  all  results  of  ptomaine 
poisoning  and  sequent  inflammations,  except  the 
fatty  degenerations  ;  and  there  is  quite  a  proba- 
bility that  fatty  degeneration  mav  have  the  same 
cause.  Alcohol  does  not  cause  true  inflammation. 
It  cannot  cause  pus,  cancer,  degeneration,  atrophy, 
hypertrophy,  measles,  small-pox,  grippe,  pneumonia, 
ague,  or  consumption.  It  may  have  a  predisposing 
influence  in  the  etiology  of  these  diseases.  But 
there  is  no  evidence  that  morphia,  quinine,  gold, 
mercury,  belladonna,  aloes,  iron,  strychnia,  toma- 
toes, beef,  gossip,  infidelity,  shavings,  politics,  envy, 
hope,  or  faith,  either  or  all  of  them  ever  cause  any 


272        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

of  the  diseases  mentioned.  Alcoholism  is  a  disease, 
of  course,  but  the  pathology  has  its  limits. 

I  have  studied  inebriety  for  many  years  on  these 
lines  of  natural  selection  and  pathology.  Assum- 
ing the  great  biological  law  to  be  true,  then  there  is 
no  escape  from  its  application  to  the  phenomena  of 
poisoning  and  the  cure  of  poisoning. 

In  general  terms  the  treatment  of  morphia  and 
alcoholic  poisoning  is  like  the  treatment  of  other 
diseases  —  by  antagonizing  symptoms  and  condi- 
tions. The  true  physician,  who  has  no  hobby  to 
serve  and  is  not  a  mental  slave  to  an  edict  or  a 
dogma,  will  follow  the  methods  of  nature  in  his 
cures  of  disease.  Looking  at  the  first  general  prin- 
ciple of  alcohol  poisoning  an  expert  observer  will 
see  that  the  method  of  cure  or  recovery  from  a 
debauch  as  exhibited  by  nature  is  the  atavism  of  the 
cells  ;  which  can  only  result,  however,  by  either  a 
sudden  or  gradual  diminution  of  the  poison. 

I  know  of  nothing  more  brutal  than  an  enforce- 
ment of  the  rule  to  take  away  morphine  or  alcohol 
all  at  once  from  respective  inebriates.  The  method 
is  also  dangerous.  There  is  probably  no  physical 
or  mental  suffering  equal  to  that  which  ;s  caused 
by  a  complete  withdrawal  at  once  of  the  poison 
from  the  poison  habitue.  Yet  this  is  the  practice, 
I  understand,  in  some  of  the  so-called  homes  for 
the  inebriate. 

The  law  of  atavism  teaches  that  the  cells  when 
deprived  of  their  poison  are  in  a  new  condition  of 
environment  and,  as  a  consequence,  they  must  un- 


IS  THE  DRINK  HABIT  A  VICE  OR  A  DISEASE  ?    273 

dergo  a  new  variation.  If  the  conditions  are  the 
same  as  before  the  poisoning,  then  the  new  varia- 
tion will  be  atavism,  or  a  reversal  to  a  former  type. 
The  cells,  though  in  the  midst  of  poison  and  per- 
forming their  general  and  special  functions,  with  the 
characteristic  modifications  of  the  poison,  yet  expe- 
rience a  great  difficulty  if  deprived  of  the  poison. 
Any  cell  or  any  animal,  when  it  becomes  adapted 
to  its  environment,  experiences  like  painful  diffi- 
culty if  it  is  suddenly  removed  to  a  climate  or  con- 
dition which  deprives  it  of  one  of  the  principal 
necessities.  In  time  the  cell  or  animal  or  plant 
can,  by  variation,  adapt  itself  to  new  conditions  ; 
but  time  is  required  in  the  organic  variations  of  the 
cells  of  men  and  plants. 

The  scientific  and  humane  method,  then,  of  treat- 
ing an  inebriate,  no  matter  what  the  poison,  is  to 
gradually  reduce  the  "drug"  and  bring  about  the 
atavism  of  the  cells  by  equal  methods.  In  alco- 
holic poisoning  this  can  be  done  in  a  comparative! v 
short  time.  My  treatment  combines  food  princi- 
ples with  an  alcoholic  preparation  which  supplies 
the  needed  nerve  nourishment,  and  the  drug  re- 
quired to  secure  atavism  of  the  nerve  cells  speedily 
and  easily. 

I  will  say  that  in  the  discovery  of  my  method  I 
did  not  follow  empirical  experiment  alone.  I  in- 
vestigated the  question  on  the  lines  of  natural 
selection  relating  to  pathology.  As  pathology 
(disease)  is  caused  by  poisons,  I  learned  that  cells 
acquire  an  immunity  from  poisons  by  being  poi- 


274        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

soned.  I  learned  that  this  immunity  lasts  very 
long  in  ptomaine  poisoning,  but  is  short  in  other 
poisons  —  mineral  poisons  and  poisons  like  alcohol. 
I  finally  learned  that  certain  well  known  drugs  will 
obliterate  the  vestiges  of  variation,  or  whatever 
changes  there  may  be  in  nerve  cells  after  long  use 
of  alcohol  and  other  poisons. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

THE  CURE  OF  IXKIJRIETY. 

THE  history  of  medicine  is  silent  on  the  cure  of 
drunkenness.  For  this  disease  the  record  of 
science  gives  no  remedy.  The  clinical  history  of 
drunkenness  must  be  looked  for  in  the  records  of 
criminal  courts  rather  than  in  the  multiplied  volumes 
of  the  science  and  art  of  medicine.  These  records 
show  that  police  justices  and  policemen  have  been 
the  physicians  and  nurses  of  the  drunkard.  The 
poison  which  causes  a  fever  has  been  attended  by 
science,  bv  sympathv,  and  by  all  the  arts  of  medi- 
cine ;  but  the  poison  of  alcohol  and  its  bloated  dis- 

ed  victim  have  been  outcasts.  When  the  f. 
patient  dies  love  goes  into  mourning  with  all  the 
costly  panoply  of  woe,  but  when  the  drunkard  dies 
shame  is  the  chief  mourner.  Alcohol,  though  a  poi- 
son, is  regarded  as  a  dispensation  of  Providence  ; 
but  alcohol  is  the  poison  of  dishonor  and  the  ine- 
briate's life  and  death  are  a  reproach. 

Mental  disease  was  once  credited  to  demoniacal 
possession.  Insane  patients  were  confined  and 
treated  with  the  lash  and  other  punishments.  So 
strong  a  hold  did  this  idea  have  on  the  public  and 
professional  mind  that  a  scientific  knowledge  of  this 

275 


276        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

disease  and  its  humane  treatment  is  scarcely  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  old.  Thirty  years  ago 
it  was  a  very  rare  thing  for  the  faculties  of  medical 
colleges  to  teach  anything  on  the  subject  of  insanity. 

It  is  truly  very  difficult  to  draw  the  line  between 
moral  and  vicious  mental  manifestations.  In  older 
days  any  disease  affecting  the  mind  so  as  to  cause 
vicious  symptoms  was  apt  to  be  charged  up  to  some 
evil  spirit  or  moral  depravity  on  the  part  of  the 
person.  The  remedy  was  naturally  punishment. 
One  by  one  the  whole  list  of  nervous  diseases,  as 
insanity,  convulsions,  imbecility,  and  inebriety,  is 
passing  over  from  the  domain  of  ignorance  and 
brutal  treatment  into  that  of  science  and  cure.  The 
idea  that  drunkenness  is  a  disease  and  is  curable 
came  to  me  like  an  inspiration.  It  first  startled  the 
medical  profession  as  the  light  from  heaven  did 
Saul  of  Tarsus,  when  he  was  aroused  from  his 
errors  and  became  Paul  the  apostle  of  the  gospel  of 
righteousness.  Drunkenness  is  now  being  slowly 
recognized  as  a  disease  by  the  medical  profession, 
although  it  is  a  disease  readily  curable.  Within  a 
few  years  many  thousands  have  been  cured  and  are 
now  well.  In  all  the  history  of  diseases  this  is  the 
first  instance  of  an  epidemic  of  cure.  Heretofore 
all  epidemics  have  meant  disease  and  death. 

In  the  future  inebriety  as  a  disease  will  have  its 
place  in  medical  practice.  Its  pathology  will  have 
its  place  in  medical  books  and  medical  science  and 
teaching.  There  will  be  fewer  inebriates  in  jails  and 
more  of  them  in  hospitals.  There  will  be  fewer 


THE   CURE   OF    INEBRIETY.  277 

fines  paid  by  drunkards  and  more  fees  for  cure.  The 
reproach  of  drunkenness  will  be  that  it  is  not  cured, 
since  it  is  curable.  Public  sentiment  will  not  toler- 
ate inebriety  ;  and  the  neglect  of  cure  on  the  part 
of  the  patient  will  compel  him  by  law  or  by  force 
to  subject  himself  to  a  cure.  Religious  and  moral 
societies  and  benevolent  people  will  create  a  fund 
to  support  the  inebriate  hospitals  ;  the  states  in 
several ty  are  already  beginning  to  do  this  ;  perhaps 
our  wise  men  will  divert  a  portion  of  the  liquor  and 
saloon  revenues  to  cure  the  consequences  of  alco- 
holic consumption. 

The  value  to  the  family  and  state  of  the  discov- 
ery of  a  cure  for  drunkenness  is  almost  incalculable. 
In  the  balance  against  human  suffering,  family  pov- 
erty, and  wretchedness  there  is  certainly  no  estimate 
of  its  value.  It  is  beyond  calculation.  It  almost 
by  itself  solves  the  great  problem,  "  Is  life  worth 
living?"  and  to  thousands  upon  thousands  of  fami- 
lies it  can  give  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  question, 
"  Is  marriage  a  failure  ?"  Life  is  not  worth  living 
if  the  life  is  poisoned;  and  the  great  unit  of  commu- 
ties,  the  family,  which  is  based  upon  marriage,  if 
subjected  to  poison,  very  readily  demonstrates  that 
it  as  well  as  marriage  is  a  failure.  But  cold  calcu- 
lation has  a  unit  for  measuring  all  values,  which  is 
the  dollar.  The  value  of  a  man's  worth  to  the 
state  is  based  upon  this  unit  of  calculation.  A 
drunkard  is  of  no  particular  value  to  the  state  or  to 
the  family.  In  fact  the  drunkard  is  an  expense ;  his 
value  is  a  minus  quantity,  or  a  negative  value.  He 


278        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

is  the  cause  of  large  police  organizations  ;  but  for 
him  the  expense  of  bridewells,  jails,  and  penitentia- 
ries would  be  very  small.  A  dead  man  is  no  ex- 
pense. A  drunkard  costs  the  state  money,  and  per- 
sons and  property  are  both  in  peril  through  him.  A 
drunkard  wastes  property.  He  lives  on  another's 
wages.  He  causes  family  degradation  and  sorrow. 

A  cured  inebriate  is  restored  to  manhood.  He 
at  once  becomes  industrious.  On  an  average  the 
wage  basis  of  calculation  can  be  employed  to  esti- 
mate his  state  value.  By  this  criterion  we  will  say 
that  he  earns  by  labor  one  thousand  dollars  annu- 
ally, which  is  a  fair  average  for  the  class  of  men 
cured  at  my  institutes.  Given  a  thousand  men  and 
it  will  be  seen  that  they  will  earn  a  million  dollars 
a  year.  When  it  is  considered  that  these  cured  men 
run  into  many  thousands,  the  total  benefit  reaches  a 
great  pecuniary  value.  These  men  have  all  resumed 
payment  and  earning  as  well.  They  are  worth  this 
money,  on  the  average,  to  the  community.  The 
difference,  from  the  moral  basis  of  value  to  human 
life,  is  that  to  these  men  life  has  become  worth  liv- 
ing ;  while  their  wives  —  and  the  rule  is  that  these 
men  have  the  noblest  wives  among  women  —  the 
verdict  of  these  women  is  that  marriage  is  no  longer 
a  failure. 

It  does  not  follow  that  all  drunkards  are  worse 
than  dead  men,  or  that  all  drunkards  are  criminals 
and  are  not  bread  winners  ;  but  no  one,  I  think,  will 
deny  that,  measured  by  the  almighty  unit  of  value, 
any  drunkard  after  he  is  cured  and  reformed  is 


THE  CURE   OF   INEBRIETY.  279 

worth  one    thousand    dollars   annually  more  to  the 
state  than  when  diseased  and  unregenerated. 

People  naturally  ask,  Why  is  it,  if  every  man's 
life  is  worth  so  much  to  his  country,  and  drinking 
makes  him  useless,  that  the  state  does  not  prevent 
the  manufacture  of  alcohol  ?  In  reply  to  this  ques- 
tion I  will  briefly  answer,  that  alcohol  cannot  be 
prohibited  because  the  social  conditions,  and  par- 
ticularly the  sanitary  conditions  of  civilized  coun- 
tries, are  such  that  the  demand  for  alcohol  cannot 
be  overcome. 

I  regard  good  sanitation  as  the  one  great  essen- 
tial element  of  temperance.  I  regard  bad  sanita- 
tion as  the  chief  and  great  cause  of  intemperance. 
People  who  want  to  secure  prohibition  should  secure 
sanitation.  Prohibition  would  follow  this  as  natur- 
ally as  the  trailer  follows  the  car  that  carries  the 
motor.  No  legislative  enactment  could  mak 
buggy  pull  a  horse  up  hill.  People  who  pray  that 
results  may  overcome  causes  in  this  manner  are  not 
likely  to  get  an  answer  to  prayers.  But  the  people 
who  pray  that  prohibition  may  prevail  and  who  then 
go  to  work  and  clean  up  this  earth,  and  put  a  stop  to 
its  pollution  by  putrefaction  —  thus  ending  the  un- 
holy death  rate  of  thousands  of  people  annually,  in 
every  country,  by  diseases  that  are  simply  public 
homicide  —  these  people  will  some  day  see  their 
prayer  for  prohibition  answered. 

But  to-day  alcohol  is  king.  It  is  equally  at 
home  in  human  blood  and  human  brains,  whether 
the  body  is  clad  in  silks  or  beggarly  rags.  Alcohol 


280        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

is  the  glory  of  the  rich  man's  sideboard  and  the 
concentrated  wretchedness  of  many  a  poor  man's 
cupboard.  It  is  the  chief  medicine  in  preventable 
diseases.  It  lowers  the  temperature  of  fever  and 
averts  the  threatened  heart-failure  in  disease  and 
injury.  It  antagonizes  the  polluted  atmosphere, 
which  carries  with  it  into  the  lungs  and  blood  of 
poisoned  people  the  vapors  of  putrefaction.  Alco- 
hol is  the  instinctive  remedy  of  the  people  of  all 
Christendom,  for  debility,  for  fatigue,  for  disease 
and  injury.  You  cannot  prohibit  alcohol  from  a 
people  who  overwork,  who  are  unduly  fatigued,  who 
suffer  from  diseases  that  they  should  prevent  and 
from  accidents  that  are  always  resulting  from  the 
haste  and  carelessness  of  a  hasty  and  careless 
people. 

Other  diseases  cause  people  to  drink.  These 
diseases  may  have  no  possible  connection  with  alco- 
holism, except  the  relation  of  association.  People 
who  are  insane  or  have  other  nervous  disease  may 
suddenly  go  to  drinking  and  develop  inebriety. 
Usually,  however,  such  persons  become  opium  ine- 
briates. 

The  disease  of  drunkenness  is  caused  by  noth- 
ing else  than  alcohol.  It  is  not  inherited,  therefore. 
The  doctrine  that  drunkenness  is  hereditary  is  a 
violation  of  all  known  laws  of  heredity  relating  to 
poisons.  The  poison  of  scarlet  fever  is  required  to 
cause  that  disease  and  scarlet  fever  cannot  be  inher- 
ited. The  same  rules  apply  to  consumption,  ty- 
phoid, diphtheria,  and  all  other  similar  diseases. 


THE   CURE   OF   INEBRIETY.  281 

Probably  not  more  than  one  drinker  in  twenty-five 
becomes  a  drunkard.  The  other  two  dozen  keep 
wine  cellars  and  sideboards,  visit  saloons,  carry  a 
bottle  in  their  pockets,  take  alcohol  as  a  medicine, 
drink  socially  and  drink  whenever  they  please,  but 
they  do  not  become  drunkards. 

If  seven  persons  are  equally  exposed,  only  one 
will  acquire  consumption.  The  rule  is  that  one  out 
of  every  seven  people  born  dies  with  this  dist 
Why  do  the  other  six  escape  ?  The  reason  is  be- 
cause they  inherit  an  immunity  or  protection  from 
this  disease. 

The  same  rule   applies  to   alcohol.      The    nations 
of  Christendom  have  been  drinking  whisky  for  cen- 
turies.     The  reason  these  nations  are  not  "half 
over "  all   the   time    is    simply    because    so    man 
the  people  have    inherited   a  greater  or    less  protec- 
tion against  tin-  poison  of  alcohol  that  drinking  d 
not  make  them  drunk  nor  make  them  drunkards. 

But  a  certain  per  cent,  of  drinkers,  whatever  it 
may  be,  become  inebriates.  \Ye  all  know  this  dis- 
ease from  its  symptoms.  These  are  a  periodical 
craving  for  drink  which  nothing  but  a  cure  of  the 
disease,  except  in  very  rare  instances,  can  prevent. 

Alcoholism,  or  drunkenness,  is  readily  curable. 
It  is  easier  to  cure  than  any  other  disease.  In  fact 

J 

it  is  the  only  disease  that  can  be  said  to  be  curable  at 
all  ;  for  the  general  rule  is  that  other  diseases  are 
cured  by  natural  laws.  YYe  all  know  that  the  dis- 
eases consist  of  a  forward  and  backward  variation 
of  cells  of  the  tissues,  caused  by  periodical  poison- 


282        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

ing.  This  variation  and  atavism,  after  long  con- 
tinued inebriety,  becomes  a  habit,  or  an  instinct  of 
the  cells.  There  is  no  stronger  motive  of  force  of 
mind  than  habit.  Habit,  which  is  the  result  of  poi- 
soning, is  a  diseased  habit,  or  a  habit  of  disease. 
The  habit  of  alcoholized  tissue  cells  is  as  powerful 
as  the  instinct  of  migratory  animals,  which  recurs 
periodically,  from  long  continued  customs  of  an- 
cestry. A  migratory  bird,  tamed  and  housed  and 
living  luxuriously  and  sumptuously  every  day,  with 
no  possible  reason  for  migration,  will,  at  the  ap- 
pointed time,  migrate  if  it  can.  The  reason  in  such 
a  case  is  not  because  of  the  original  necessity  of 
climate,  but  the  cause  is  the  inherited  function  of 
the  nerve  cells. 

The  drunkard  has  nerve  cells,  and  probably  other 
tissue  cells,  which  have  acquired  the  same  sort  of 
rhythmically  recurring  habit  for  drink.  The  cure  of 
the  drunkard  consists  in  breaking  up  this  nerve 
habit.  You  know  just  how  it  is.  When  a  drunkard 
ends  his  spree  he  swears  off.  He  promises  himself 
and  wife,  and  all  friends,  society  and  business  and 
church  that  he  will  drink  no  more.  The  migratory 
bird  has  come  home  to  stay.  But  at  the  appointed 
time,  when  everything  is  going  well,  when  there  is 
no  possible  reason,  off  goes  the  migratory  bird  on 
another  disgraceful  drunk.  No  society,  no  pledges, 
no  family  endearments,  no  crisis  of  business,  no  love 
of  holiness  or  of  the  Lord  can  prevent  it.  The  nerve 
cells  have  swung  back  on  the  pendulum  of  acquired 


THE   CURE    OF   INEBRIETY.  283 

habit    to   the  other   end   of    the   segment,  and    the 
"  tick  "  must  follow. 

I  have  learned  that  certain  drugs  and  methods 
and  discipline  will  effectually  break  up  this  cycle  of 
nervous  habit  and  rhythm  and  will  cure  the  inebri- 
ate. I  believe  that  this  discovery  will  mark  an  era 
of  human  development.  It  will  lengthen  life.  It 
will  destroy  much  sorrow.  It  will  increase  the 
working  force  and  prosperity  of  the  world.  If  men 
live  longer  and  live  soberly,  they  can  think  more  ; 
and  when  men  think  freely,  the  world  goes  on 
toward  the  high  work  of  human  destiny,  which  must 
destroy  poverty,  destroy  disease,  destroy  sorrow,  and 
bring  about  the  perfect  moral  code  of  the  millen- 
nium. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

TREATMENT  OF  INEBRIETY  AND  OTHER 
DISEASES. 

THE  world  emerged  from  the  dark  ages  of  gen- 
eral science  and  intelligence  nearly  four  hun- 
dred years  ago.  The  scientific  question  relating  to 
the  human  mind  hinged  on  the  change  of  deductive 
to  inductive  reasoning.  Before  this  epoch  in  mental 
development  if  a  man  studied  the  phenomena  of 
electricity  he  did  it  by  the  method  of  introspection, 
just  as  he  studied  mental  phenomena.  Before  this 
period  "  philosophy "  dictated  all  general  facts  of 
mind,  body,  soul,  and  universe  ;  a?ll  mental  and  phys- 
ical phenomena  were  explained  by  deduction  from 
these  data  of  philosophy.  The  data  of  all  these 
philosophies  were  imaginations.  They  were  dogmas. 
They  were  formulated  into  creeds.  There  were  no 
experiments,  no  studying  of  natural  phenomena.  It 
was  all  that  a  man's  life  was  worth  in  those  days  to 
dispute  the  dogmas  of  philosophy  ;  new  discoveries 
in  natural  science  were  frequently  illuminated  by  the 
faggot  fires  of  human  sacrifice. 

But  to-day  old  philosophy  is  dead.    Introspective 

generalities    and  philosophic   dogmas  have    folded 

their  tents  like  the  Arabs  and  as  silently  stolen  away 

—  into  oblivion.     There   is   no   longer  any  philos- 

284 


TREATMENT   OF   INEBRIETY.  285 

ophy  in  the  scientific  world  except  the  generaliza- 
tions of  science  derived  by  induction  through  trial 
and  experiment.  Human  belief  in  scientific  ques- 
tions no  longer  asks  for  personal  authority.  There 
is  no  personal  authority.  There  is  no  criterion  of 
scientific  truth  except  the  verification  of  experi- 
mental trial.  If  personal  authority  is  ever  quoted 
it  is  because  such  person  has  furnished  the  verifica- 
;ions  of  science  bv  experiment.  Dogmas  of  science 
•ere  mediaeval  giants  armed  with  spear  and  shield, 
"hey  were  supposed  to  be  an  invincible  army.  They 
:onquered  and  ruled  the  world.  But  scientific  veri- 
ication,  a  mere  stripling,  armed  with  pebbles  from 
:he  little  rivulet  of  thought,  brought  these  giants  of 
iiiman  superstition  to  the  earth,  as  David  vanquished 
the  hero  of  the  Philistines, 

When    the    dogmas    of    philosophy    were    dead 
jcience   was    born.     The   method   of  logic  was   in- 
'erted.      Instead  of  verifying  special  facts  in  nature 
>y   deductions  from    philosophical  generalities,  the 
'ider  inductions  of  science,  as   proved  from  special 
icts,  were  set  up  in  the  place  of  the  supposed  dog- 
las  of  philosophy.      Modern   philosophy  is  created 
this   manner.      Even   in  the  domain  of  mind  and 
:onscience   the   objective    method  of    study   is  em- 
>loyed  instead  of  the  introspective  method. 

The  new   method   of   thought   and   reasoning   is 
employed  in  all  science  and  in   all    the    special    arts 
ind  sciences.     The  great  development  of  electrical 
:icnce,  with    its    cars,    telephones,    telegraph,    and 
tificial  light,  were  all  derived  from  patient  experi- 


286        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

ment,  trial,  and  induction.  No  man  could  ever  have 
invented  these  things  by  introspection,  or  by  deduc- 
tion from  the  dogmas  of  old  philosophy. 

But  medical  science  has  exhibited  the  slowest 
development  under  this  method  of  thought,  as  com- 
pared with  other  applied  science.  In  fact,  eighteen 
years  ago  there  was  no  medical  science.  The  art  of 
medical  practice  was  based  upon  the  empirical  re- 
lations of  drugs  to  the  symptoms  of  disease,  but 
physicians  did  not  know  the  cause  of  disease.  The 
consequence  of  this  was  the  creation  of  scientific 
dogmas,  to  take  the  place  of  scientific  inductive 
truth.  The  last  eighteen  years  has  presented  an 
object  lesson  to  the  world  of  the  great  difficulty  the 
human  mind  experiences  in  removing  a  dogma  from 
its  pedestal  and  erecting  in  its  place  the  graceful 
statue  of  truth.  The  discovery  of  the  microbe  as 
the  cause  of  disease  and  its  final  acceptance  by  the 
medical  profession,  and  the  crowning  of  the  myth- 
ical deities  of  medicine  and  hygiene  with  the  laurel 
of  science  are  all  within  our  observation  and  mem- 
ory ;  yet  this  work  was  only  done  after  great  oppo- 
sition and  much  bitter  controversy. 

But  having  at  last  been  accepted  the  great  labor 
of  conquering  disease  is  making  rapid  strides.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  great  single  remedy,  a  uni- 
versal germitoxic,  or  microbe  destroyer,  will  soon 
be  made  known.  A  single  cable  connects  the 
thought  and  business  of  Europe  and  America. 
Science  always  simplifies  all  things.  Before  the 
telegraph  cable  was  laid  through  mid-ocean  a  thou- 


TREATMENT   OF   INEBRIETY.  287 

sand  sail  and  steamships  did  this  work,  by  mail  or 
by  messenger.  Before  the  discovery  of  the  cause 
of  disease  there  were  a  thousand  remedies  for  each 
disease.  As  scientific  investigation  advances  these 
useless  remedies  are  falling  by  the  way.  When 
medical  science  has  reached  its  full  development 
there  will  be  a  single  remedy  for  the  destruction  of 
the  microbic  origin  of  disease. 

Only  a  few  years  ago  inebriates,  when  not  pun- 
ched by  imprisonment  or  other  penalty  for  clrunk- 
Mincss,  were  placed,  if  desirable,  in  asylums  or  hos- 
)itals  for  treatment.  These  asylums  did  not  recog- 
a  single  cause  for  inebriety,  and  their  remedies 
rcre  as  numerous  as  the  symptoms,  whims,  caprices, 
ind  opinions  of  both  the  physician  and  patient.  No 
;ingle  cure  for  this  single  lesion,  having  but  a  single 
muse,  was  recognized.  Months  or  years  of  time, 
rith  drugs  innumerable,  with  seclusion  and  with  loss 
>f  liberty,  were  employed  to  cure  an  inebriate.  But 
to-day  the  disease  of  inebriety  is  known  to  !>• 
single  pathological  lesion,  having  a  single  cause,  and 
:urable  by  a  single  remedy.  If  a  multitudinous 
Tray  of  remedies  ever  happened  to  cure  a  disease, 
it  is  because  one  of  them  happened  to  be  the  proper 
:ure.  If  a  sparrow  is  subjected  to  a  dischar: 
;'rape  and  canister  from  a  twenty-four  pounder 
>iece  of  ordnance,  and  is  killed  thereby,  the  result 
likely  clue  to  one  of  the  shot  happening  to  strike 
iim.  But  a  riile  with  a  single  shot,  scientifically 
.imcd,  would  do  better. 

I  do  not  say  that   the   old   asylum    treatment   is 


288        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

altogether  unsatisfactory  and  unsuccessful.  Years 
of  isolation  and  symptomatic  treatment  by  many 
drugs  have  perhaps  cured  cases  of  inebriety.  But  I 
say  that  science  knows  a  better  method.  A  single 
remedy  can  cure  inebriety  in  a  few  weeks,  without 
a  hospital  or  asylum  and  without  restraint. 

Life  is  short  and  business  is  always,  in  conse- 
quence, in  a  hurry.  Men  want  to  make  a  fortune 
in  time  to  enjoy  it  themselves,  and,  if  diseased,  the 
more  speedy  the  cure  the  more  welcome  it  is.  In 
these  days  of  breathless  haste  and  business  method 
if  you  want  to  send  a  business  communication  to 
Europe,  you  can  write  several  letters  and  mail  them 
by  as  many  vessels.  No  doubt  they  will  all  reach 
their  destination  sometime,  if  not  within  the  desired 
time.  But  the  modern  business  man  does  not  work 
by  that  method.  As  a  rule  he  cannot  take  the  time, 
or  succeed  in  his  business  by  so  doing.  Instead  of 
this  he  sends  his  message  by  cable.  The  cable  is 
the  single  cure  for  his  business  trouble  and  it  is  cor- 
respondingly speedy. 

That  great  philosopher,  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer, 
has  demonstrated,  through  his  systematic  philos- 
ophy, that  all  developments  in  nature,  art,  science, 
and  even  mental  development  are  from  the  simple 
to  the  complex,  from  the  general  to  the  special, 
from  the  undifferentiated  to  the  differentiated. 
There  is  no  science  or  art  that  does  not  verify  this 
general  law.  This  great  generalization  of  science 
is  an  induction  from  verified  facts. 

In  medical   practice  we  find  this  law  holds  good. 


TREATMENT   OF    INEBRIETY.  289 

It  is  true  in  the  cause  of  disease  ;  it  is  true  in  rela- 
tion to  remedies.  There  is  but  one  cause,  respect- 
ively, for  consumption,  typhoid  fever,  small-pox,  or 
other  microbe  diseases.  The  remedies,  if  any  are 
known,  are  also  differentiated  and  single  cures. 

The  same  rule  holds  good  in  the  disease  of  ine- 
briety.    The   single   cause  of   inebriety   is   alcohol. 
There  can  be  but  a  single  reined v,  if  the   remedy  is 
scientific  cure. 

Speaking  in  a  general  sense,  or  from  the  undif- 
ferentiated  standpoint,  all  inebrieties  are  caused  by 
)oison.  But  science  differentiates  the  inebrieties 
into  special  and  single  kinds  and  gix^es  each  a  single 
:ausc.  Arsenic,  alcohol,  opium,  ether,  and  hash- 
eesh are  single  poisons  which  cause  their  respective 
inebrieties  l 

>ther  tissues,  in  relation  to  each  poison,  is  a  varia- 
;ion  of  the  tissue  cells,  which  is  caused  bv  the  poi- 
;on  and  which  is  the  result  of  nature's  effort  to 
tolerate  the  poison,  but  which,  curiously,  always 
'esults  in  a  craving  for  more  oT  the  poison. 

Disease  in  general   is    caused   by  the    microbe,  a 
licroscopical   plant,   a   unicellular   organism,  which 
lanufactures   a  poison    called    ptomaine,    and    this 
)oison  causes    disease.     The    different   diseases   are 
:aused  by  as  many  differentiated  species  of  microbe, 
4iich   manufacture  a  correspondingly  differentiated 
)tomaine  poison. 

Science  simplifies  all  things.  Before  the  discov- 
:ry  of  the  microbe  the  alleged  causes  of  disease 
'•ere  almost  as  numerous  as  the  remedies,  No  dis- 


290        THE   NOX-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

ease  was  credited  to  a  single  cause.  No  disease 
had  a  single  remedy.  Perhaps  the  nearest  approach 
to  singleness  relating  to  cause  was  cold.  Cold  is 
yet  held  in  great  fear  by  the  general  public,  which 
is  always  afraid  of  "  taking  cold."  The  instinctive 
care  exercised  by  persons  who  wrap  up  wounds  in 
much  flannel  is  to  avoid  taking  cold  in  the  wound. 
Science  has  demonstrated  that  blood  poisoning  in 
wounds  is  not  the  result  of  "catching  cold"  in  the 
wound,  but  of  catching  dirt,  which  dirt  contains  the 
microbe  of  blood  poisoning. 

The  early  and  premature  death  of  the  greater 
number  of  people  born  and  the  sorrow  and  crimes 
of  humanity  can  all  be  traced  to  the  inebriac  or  else 
to  the  microbe  poisons. 


C1IAITKR    XXIII. 
I'SVCHICAL  AGENCIES   IN   INKI5RIETV. 

THE  efforts  to  establish  hospitals  for  the  treat- 
ment of  inebriety  bv  means  of  hypnotism  or 
by  suasion  will  always  prove  abortive.  Mental  influ- 
ence of  this  character  simply  creates  a  delusion  of 
the  state  of  belief,  or  of  the  judgment,  or  of  reason, 
or  of  perception.  It  does  not  directly  work  any  real 
change  whatever  in  the  pathology  of  inebriety  or 
in  that  of  any  other  disease.  It  may  create  any 
belief  whatever  relating  to  any  disease.  A  healthy 
person  may  be  persuaded  that  he  is  ill  and  believe 
it  ;  a  sick  person  can  be  made  to  believe  that  he  is 
cured  or  never  had  disease  ;  but  these  imposed 
states  of  belief  reach  no  deeper  than  delusion. 

One  may  recall  the  circumstance  that  Sir  Hum- 
phry Davy,  when  investigating  the  properties  of 
laughing  gas,  proposed  to  give  it  to  a  man  who  was 
suffering  from  neuralgia  of  the  face,  but  first  tried 
his  temperature  with  a  medical  thermometer  in  his 
mouth.  As  a  consequence  the  man  declared  that 
the  pain  ha'd  ceased.  This  is  a  case  in  point.  The 
man  was  deluded  into  a  belief  that  the  thermome- 
ter had  peculiar  powers;  and  it  is  true  that  delusion 
can  inhibit  or  prevent  the  consciousness  of  pain. 

291 


292        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

But  the  conditions  of  disease  causing  the  pain  re- 
main the  same  and  assert  themselves  again  as  soon 
as  the  delusion  has  passed  away. 

I  am  acquainted  with  a  medical  professor,  who, 
on  his  way  to  a  lecture,  caught  a  cinder  in  his 
eye  from  a  locomotive,  while  looking  from  the 
•window  of  the  car  in  which  he  was  riding.  The 
presence  of  this  foreign  body  was  exceedingly  pain- 
ful and  he  rode  to  the  college  in  a  street  car  from 
the  railway  depot,  unable  to  open  his  eye  and  cover- 
ing it  with  his  handkerchief.  On  his  arrival  he 
intended  to  have  one  of  the  faculty  relieve  him  by 
removal  of  the  cinder,  but  as  he  entered  his  room 
the  bell  rang  for  the  lecture  and  he  passed  immedi- 
ately into  the  lecture  room,  received  the  usual  wel- 
come from  the  students,  and,  as  he  began  to  talk, 
the  pain  ceased  for  an  hour,  the  duration  of  his 
address.  He  thought  the  cinder  had  escaped  ;  but 
within  a  few  moments  after  regaining  his  private 
room  the  pain  returned  and  he  called  another 
member  of  the  faculty,  who  applied  cocaine  and 
removed  the  mote  from  his  eye.  The  intense  mental 
occupation  or  activity  of  the  professor's  mind  during 
his  lecture  inhibited  or  prevented  the  pain  caused 
by  the  cinder,  as  represented  in  consciousness.  This 
effect  was  aided  by  his  belief  that  the  cinder  had 
escaped  by  action  of  eyelids  and  tears;  but  all  this 
was  a  delusion,  and  though  delusion  may  color  any 
belief  and  destroy  the  pain  of  disease,  it  may  do 
these  things  without  reaching  deeper  than  delusion  ; 
the  real  disease  and  its  cause  remaining  undisturbed, 


PSYCHICAL   AGENCIES    IX   INEBRIETY.        293 

to   re-appear  after  the   delusion    has   been  dispelled 
or  the  intense  mental  activity  has  ceased. 

Hypnotism  is  said  to  have  been  used  successfully 
to  inhibitor  prevent  pain  during  surgical  operations. 
Hypnotism  may  reach  thus  far  into  physiology  and 
therapeutics,  or  the  cure  of  disease.  But  suppose  a 
surgeon  who  was  compelled  to  amputate  a  thigh 
for  disease  of  the  knee  joint  were  to  hypnotize 
lis  patient,  and  then  succeed  in  making  him  believe 
:hat  there  was  no  disease  of  the  knee  joint,  instead 
>f  performing  the  amputation  ?  This  would  be  like 
:he  proposed  method  for  the  cure  of  inebriety  by 
:he  French  means  of  hypnotism.  Delusion  of 
)clief  cannot  cure  inebriety  or  any  other  dis< 
[t  may  create  delusion  for  a  time  relating  to  dis- 
ease, but  the  disease  is  still  there.  The  u- 
;uch  a  means  as  hypnotism  to  relieve  pain  may  be: 
justifiable,  but  used  as  a  delusion,  in  the  pretended 
:ure  of  inebriety  or  other  disease,  is  a  fraud  and 
imposition. 

Nature   cures    disease   by  the   development  of  a 
tolerance  to  the  cause  of  c 

:he  tissue  or  organ  which  is  occupied  by  the  cause, 
f  the  cause  is  a  microbe  or  other  poison,  the  . 
general    law   always  holds  good.     To  do  this   there 
mst   be  no  other  force   at  work    upon   the   diseased 
:issues  or   organ;   or,  at    least,  if    other  forces   be   so 
it  work,  they  will  modify  or  prevent  this  method  of 
lature's  cure,  or  this  development  of  a  tolerance  or 
•esistance  to  the  cause  of  disease 

The    effect  of   the    delusion    by  hypnotism    is    to 


294        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

divert  nerve  currents  from  certain  nerve  centres. 
They  are  cut  out  from  activities  and  functions  to  a 
great  extent,  and  cut  out  of  consciousness.  This 
lessening  of  activities  prevents  their  development 
of  the  variation  of  structure  which  will  enable  them 
to  resist  disease. 

I  once  knew  of  a  consumptive  girl,  who,  at  a  late 
stage  of  her  malady,  was  subjected  to  some  prescrip- 
tion of  faith  akin  to  hypnotism.  At  least  she  was 
led  to  the  delusion  that  she  wras  cured.  She  believed 
and  acted  accordingly.  She  went  about  the  house, 
trying  to  do  house  work,  and  the  effects  of  her  be- 
lief were  so  far-reaching  that  the  reflex  sensations, 
which  provoked  her  to  cough,  were  abolished,  and 
her  cough  ceased.  This  was  mentioned  as  further 
evidence  of  her  cure.  But  expectorating  the  puru- 
lent and  poisoned  secretions  and  products  from  the 
lungs  and  bronchia  is  one  of  nature's  methods  of 
tolerance  or  relief.  When  the  girl's  cough  stopped, 
her  lungs  and  bronchia  filled  up  with  material  which 
should  have  been  thrown  off,  and  she  was  found  one 
morning  dead  in  bed  as  a  consequence. 

It  will  not  answer  to  cause  delusion  in  the  mind 
of  the  inebriate  that  he  is  cured.  When  the  delusion 
passes  away  the  disease  will  still  be  there. 

Inebriety  is  a  disease.  It  is  not  a  delusion,  a 
phantom,  or  an  imagination.  It  is  as  much  a  dis- 
ease of  the  nervous  system  as  insanity,  paralysis,  or 
epilepsy.  How  would  a  socrety  of  physicians  appear 
who  would  deliberately  build  a  hospital  and  equip 
it  with  the  avowed  intention  of  treating  insanity  by 


PSYCHICAL  AGENCIES   IN    INEBRIETY.        295 

hypnotism  and  other  like  psychical  agencies?  The 
only  nervous  disease  or  "  habit  "  upon  which  this 
society  for  the  cure  of  inebriety,  or  any  society, 
would  be  scientifically  or  morally  justified  in  prac 
ticing  its  proposed  hypnotism  would  be  chronic  im 
becility.  Their  own  explanation  of  the  method  oi 
cure  by  hypnotism,  if  applied  to  the  disease  of  im" 
becility,  would  appear  plausible.  The  society  would 
say:  "The  imbecile  patient  visiting  for  the  first  time 
the  hypnotic  cure  will  be  required  to  sit  down  and 
watch  the  treatment  as  applied  to  others.  This 
gives  him  confidence  and  arouses  that  imitative 
faculty  \vhich  is  so  active  in  childhood  and  is  m 
lost  in  adult  life  (and  is  peculiar  to  imbeciles). 
When  his  turn  comes  he  will  be  told  to  take  his 
place  in  an  arm-chair  and  to  make  his  mind  as 
blank  as  possible  ;  to  think  of  nothing,  to  fix  his 
eyes  and  attention  upon  some  special  object,  from 
the  operator's  face  or  hand,  to  any  object  on  the 
ceiling  or  floor,  etc." 

Now  such  a  procedure  as  this,  by  a  society  for 
the  cure  of  inebriety,  will  scarcely  make  an  imbecile 
appear  to  worse  advantage,  but  will  fail  to  improve 
the  appearance  or  condition  of  a  drunken  man. 

But  I  respect  the  inebriate  far  too  greatly  to 
longer  associate  his  disorder  and  means  of  cure  with 
such  methods.  They  may,  all  of  them,  enable  an  in- 
ebriate for  a  time  to  forget  his  craving  for  drink,  but 
the  inebriate  periodically  forgets  his  craving  for 
drink  during  a  season  of  sobriety,  until  the  auto- 
matic turn  is  again  given  to  his  nerve  currents,  when 


296       THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

he  will  again  experience  another  paroxysm  of 
craving  and  debauch.  During  his  period  of  sobriety 
these  people  say  that  he  shoyld  spend  his  intelligent 
thinking  hours  in  an  asylum,  striving  to  force  his 
mind  into  a  mental  state  fully  realized  only  by  the 
imbecile. 

It  would  seem  vain  indeed  to  treat  diseases, 
known  to  have  verified  and  positive  cures,  with  rem- 
edies which  are  verified  to  have  no  curative  power 
in  any  disease  whatever.  Persons  afflicted  with  in- 
ebriety will  not  be  likely  to  invest  their  money  and 
health  in  such  fancies,  however  enterprising  they 
may  be.  Inebriety  has  certainly  verified  itself,  from 
the  standpoint  of  therapeutics,  to  be  a  curable  dis- 
ease; in  fact,  the  most  easily  curable  of  any  disease. 
This  is  true  so  far  as  the  knowledge  and  observation 
of  the  world  goes.  The  large  number  of  cures  which 
proves  its  nature  as  a  disease  proves  it  to  be  a  dis- 
ease. Before  this  occurred  the  world  did  not  be- 
lieve that  inebriety  was  a  disease  at  all,  but  simply 
a  vice  or  a  "habit."  Physicians  who  yet  cling  to 
this  doctrine,  and  yet  attempt  to  prescribe  cures  for 
inebriety,  are  verily  "  deep  in  the  bonds  of  iniquity." 
Before  the  human  mind,  or  scientific  medical  mind, 
<~an  find  a  rational  cure  or  treatment  for  inebriety 
it  must  first  be  recognized  as  a  disease,  and  then  its 
pathology,  or  the  nature  of  the  disease,  must  be 
understood.  I  claim  that  the  pathology  of  inebriety 
is  scientifically  known,  though  not  widely  under- 
stood or  studied,  and  even  yet  disbelieved  by  far 
too  many.  The  greater  number  of  the  thousands 


PSYCHICAL   AGENCIES    IX    INEBRIETY.        297 

of  inebriates  that  I  have  known  knew  little  and  cared 
less  whether  inebriety  is  a  disease  or  a  habit  or  a 
vice.  There  are  thousands  more  who  have  never 
thought  of  this  question;  but  there  are  too  many 
people  engaged  in  reformatory  temperance  work, 
and  even  conducting  hospitals  for  the  cure  of  ine- 
briety, who  have  no  rational  pathology  of  inebrietv, 
and  who  treat  the  disease  by  giving  drugs  for  what- 
ever associate  disease  mav  happen  to  be  present, 
and  treating  the  craving  for  drink  by  moral  lectures, 
long  seclusion,  and  physical  and  mental  "re  I 

have  found  the  better  way  to  be  to  know  the  ine- 
briate's pathology  and  at  once  cure  his  craving  for 
liquor ;  afterwards  treat  his  associate  di- 

The  mind  has  no  control  over  inebrietv.  The 
consciousness  and  will  do  not  affect  it.  It  is  true 
that  by  force  of  pledges,  or  possibly  hypnotism,  or 
as  a  result  of  some  emotional  impression,  an  ine- 
briate mav  not  drink,  and  may,  therefore,  not  prac- 
ticallv  be  an  inebriate;  but  all  such  people  continu- 
ally speak  of  the  existence  of  their  craving  for 
liquor,  although  they  mav  control  its  demands. 

The  cured  inebriate  will  alwavs  sav  that  he  has 
no  craving — that  he  never  even  thinks  of  drinking. 
The  difference  between  the  two  is  that  the  former 
still  has  the  disease,  which  he  can  control  by  will, 
but  the  latter  does  not  have  the  disease. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
DRUNKENNESS   IS  CURABLE. 

DURING  the  past  few  years  medical  writers  have 
occasionally  appeared  who  have  timidly  sug- 
gested that  drunkenness  is  a  disease.  This  sugges- 
tion has  always  been  overwhelmed  by  the  popular 
sentiment,  derived  from  religious  and  moral  reform- 
ers, that  drunkenness  is  a  moral  evil  ;  very  often  a 
crime,  altogether  wicked,  and  only  to  be  cured  by 
religious  and  moral  influences.  This  state  of  the 
public  mind  existed  because  the  etiology  of  disease 
was  unknown.  Science  had  not  ventilated  the  cause 
of  typhoid,  consumption,  small-pox,  scarlet  fever, 
and  kindred  disorders.  These  things  are  now  under- 
stood ;  it  is  from  the  analogy  of  these  diseases  to 
drunkenness,  relating  to  poisons,  which  has  finally 
suggested  to  the  medical  mind  that  drunkenness  is 
a  disease  and  is  curable. 

I  may  say,  however,  that  all  the  writers  on  this 
subject  that  I  am  acquainted  with  have  rather 
ignored  the  fact  that  alcohol  causes  inebriety.  They 
have  endeavored  to  show,  and  have  succeeded  in 
clearly  proving  to  their  own  satisfaction,  it  would 
seem,  that  drunkenness  is  associated  and  caused  in 
one  sense  by  various  and  numerous  diseases  of  the 
nervous  and  general  system. 

298 


DRUNKKXNKSS   IS   CURABLE.  299 

There  is  a  relation  of  very  definite  character  be- 
tween bodily  and  mental  diseases  and  drunkenness; 
but  drunkenness  is  a  disease  caused  by  alcohol, 
while  other  diseases  have  other  causes.  Other  dis- 
eases may  lead  a  person  to  begin  drinking,  though 
not  from  a  craving  or  necessity  for  alcohol ;  alcohol 
causes  the  disease  of  drunkenness  and  the  craving 
for  drink.  In  order  to  be  a  drunkard  a  person  must 
begin  drinking  from  some  cause,  then  continue 
drinking  until  the  disease  is  produced;  after  this  the 
person  will  drink  rhythmically,  because  he  is  a 
drunkard  and  his  disease  requires  alcohol. 

Of  course,  no  man  is  a  drunkard  when  he  begins 
drinking.  This  fact  follows  the  proposition  that 
drunkenness  can  be  caused  l>v  nothing  else  than 
alcohol.  People  do  not  inherit  the  drink  mania  ; 
they  drink  from  example,  fashion,  disease,  for  medi- 
cine, and  from  the  thousand  and  one  other  well- 
known  causes,  which  belong  to  social  and  physiolog- 
ical existence  and  life.  Drunkards  continue  to  drink 
because  the  disease  causes  a  craving  for  alcohol. 
The  drunkard  drinks  because  the  craving  for  liquor 
is  a  symptom  of  his  disease-. 

No  disease  can  be  transmitted  by  heredity  in  any 
other  way  than  by  the  transmission  of  the  germ  dis- 
ease to  the  ovum  or  egg,  or  spermatozoon,  or  foetus. 
Alcohol  is  not  transmitted  in  this  manner;  but  even 
when  disease  does  extend  itself  in  this  manner  of 
germ  invasion,  the  poison  of  the  germ  is  creating  in 
the  tissues  a  variation  in  the  tvpe  of  the  cells,  which 
will  resist  the  germ's  poison,  which  is  transmitted 


300        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

by  heredity,  and  which  must  eventually  antagonize 
successfully  the  disease. 

The  power  of  resisting  a  disease  is  acquired  in 
no  other  way  than  by  having  the  disease.  The 
poison  of  a  disease  during  an  attack  causes  a  varia- 
tion in  the  type  of  the  tissue  cells  that  are  poisoned, 
and  the  physiology  of  this  variation  is  simply  the 
power  of  resisting  disease.  A  man  may  be  pro- 
tected from  scarlet  fever  during  his  life  time,  be- 
cause he  had  the  disease  during  early  life  ;  but  his 
children  may  not  be  protected  because  the  parent 
thus  acquired  and  enjoyed  an  immunity.  However, 
when  a  variation  in  type  of  vegetable  or  animal,  or 
the  cells  of  either,  is  acquired  from  any  cause,  .a 
part  of  this  variation  will  be  transmitted  by  heredity. 
If  one-fourth  of  total  immunity  is  thus  transmitted 
in  each  generation,  in  eight  generations,  provided 
one  parent  transmits  an  acquired  immunity,  the 
immunity  will  be  perfect,  and  this  disease  must 
come  to  an  end,  provided  all  people  are  equal  in 
their  relations  to  this  disease. 

Now  we  find  that  many  old  epidemic  diseases 
have  practically  terminated,  as  the  plague,  sweating 
sickness,  and  the  typhus  fever.  These  diseases  raged 
with  terrible  energy  during  the  dark  ages  and  they 
terminated  before  any  sanitary  measures  could  have 
accomplished  anything. 

Syphilis  is  rapidly  losing  its  terrors.  It  is  bad 
enough  now,  but  during  the  past  two  hundred  years 
the  disease  has  been  growing  milder.  There  is  no 
way  of  explaining  this  fact  except  by  the  law  of 


DRUNKENNESS   IS  CURABLE.  301 

heredity;  that  the  disease  has  to  this  extent  pro- 
duced a  resisting  power  to  its  poison  in  the  tissues 
of  mankind.  • 

One  kind  of  poison  may  pave  the  way  for  an- 
other. A  person  may  have  pneumonia  from  a 
specific  germ  which  may  weaken  the  resistance  to 
tubercle  bacilli,  and  consumption  may  result.  The 
acute  zymotic  or  mycotic  fevers,  as  typhoid,  scarla- 
tina, diphtheria,  measles,  etc.,  may  be  followed  bv 
these  secondary  invasions  and  secondary  diseases. 
If  an  old  rheumatic  joint  takes  on  a  tuberculous 
disease,  no  surgeon  will  affirm  that  the  poison  of 
rheumatism  causes  the  tubercles,  but  their  pres< 
verifies  the  secondary  invasion  of  bacillus  tubercu- 
losis. If  septiaumia  follows  tvphoid,  the  phvsi- 
cian  will  acknowledge  the  secondary  invasion  and 
presence  of  the  streptococcus  which  causes  that 
disease. 

However,  during  the  excitement  in  the  medical 
public  mind  which  followed  Pasteur's  method  of  the 
prevention  of  hydrophobia,  this  great  general  law  of 
pathology  appeared  to  be  forgotten  by  many  writ 
who  published  results  of  experiments  tending  to 
prove  that  animals,  starved  or  fed  on  shavings,  or 
inoculated  with  various  inert  non-multiplying  sub- 
stances, would  have  hydrophobia.  It  can  make  no 
difference  how  an  animal  is  fed  or  with  what  it  is 
ino.culated;  if  it  has  hydrophobia,  the  reason  is,  so 
far  as  pathological  light  has  been  shed  and  ob- 
served, that  the  germ  of  that  disease  is  present  in 
the  animal's  spinal  cord. 


302        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

Various  nervous  diseases,  as  epilepsy,  insanity, 
paralysis,  nerve  degeneration,  etc.,  as  well  as  various 
body  diseases,  may  exist  in  inebriates,  but  these 
bear  no  relation  to  the  disease  of  alcoholism,  except 
as  they  may  weaken  the  inebriate's  moral  and 
physical  resistance  to  alcohol,  lead  him  to  begin 
drinking,  and  cause  him  to  be  a  drunkard.  But 
all  this  makes  no  difference  in  the  character  of  the 
disease  of  alcoholism.  The  disease  is  just  the  same. 
The  intoxication  is  the  same,  the  acquired  resist- 
ance the  same,  the  variation  in  cell  type  the  same, 
the  periodicity  or  rhythm  is  the  same.  An  existing 
disease,  leading  a  person  to  drink,  stands  on  the 
same  pathological  relation  to  alcoholism,  in  any 
particular  person,  as  does  the  saloon  bar,  the  wine 
cellar,  the  example,  and  personal  temptation.  None 
of  these  things  cause  the  "craving  for  drink"  which 
belongs  to  alcoholism,  after  alcohol  has  caused  the 
disease.  A  man  cannot  be  a  drunkard  until  he  has 
drank  enough  to  cause  the  disease. 

I  have  said  that  the  chief  symptom  of  drunken- 
ness is  a  craving  for  liquor,  and  that  while  it  is  true 
that  a  man  may  begin  drinking  from  any  cause  or 
no  cause,  he  drinks  when  he  is  a  drunkard  because 
he  has  the  disease  of  alcoholism,  the  symptom  of 
which  is  a  craving  for  liquor.  This  is  the-subjective 
side  of  the  question  ;  but  .objectively,  the  poisoned 
nerve  cells  require  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  order 
to  carry  on  their  functions.  The  sudden  depriva- 
tion of  alcohol  causes  misery,  varying  in  degree 


DRUNKENNESS   IS  CURABLE.  3°3 

from  sleepless,  nervous,  tremulous  suffering  to  de- 
lirium tremens. 

When  a  nerve  cell  is  adapted  to  a  poison,  when 
an  animal  is  adapted  to  a  station  or  climate,  when  a 
nation  is  adapted  to  war,  then  a  change,  for  a  time, 
works  trouble  and  inconvenience  more  or  less  seri- 
ous, though  the  final  result  may  in  every  way  be 
beneficial. 

A  child  adapted  to  home  is  homesick  if  sent  off 
to  school.  Homesickness  can  even  cause  death.  A 
baby  accustomed  to  a  warm  bath  every  morning  in 
a  temperature  of  eighty  degrees  is  adapted  to  that 
condition,  and  would  very  likely  be  killed  if  bathed 
in  snow  ;  yet  in  northern  latitudes,  according  to 
George  Borrow,  the  gypsy  mothers  of  babes  give 
them  such  baths  with  impunity,  as  a  hardening  pro- 
cess to  the  rigors  of  the  climate.  Any  change  from 
one  condition  to  another  to  which  a  person  must  be- 
come adapted  is  more  or  less  painful  and  difficult. 

The  chief  evidence  of  cure  of  any  disease  is  the 
recovery  of  the  patient  after  taking  what  is  sup- 
posed to  be  a  remedy.  It  is  not  sufficient  that  a 
patient  may  believe  and  say  he  is  cured,  the  patient 
may  be  deceived  ;  but  he  must  present  the  objective 
test  that  he  is  well.  People  must  verify  by  observa- 
tion and  tests  that  the  patient  is  cured.  On  the 
other  hand  people  are  not  cured  unless  they  are  first 
sick  or  diseased.  Some  people  imagine  themselves 
sick  as  well  as  cured. 

Drunkenness  is  a  disease   that   cannot   deceive. 


THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

The  symptoms  are  always  the  same.  No  expert  or 
technical  knowledge,  or  instruments  of  precision  in 
diagnosis  are  required  to  diagnose  the  case.  When 
a  drunkard  is  cured,  the  evidence  is  equally  clear. 
If  the  patient  says  he  has  no  appetite  or  craving  for 
liquor,  and  does  not  drink  or  get  drunk,  then  why  is 
he  not  cured  ?  It  makes  no  difference  if  he  sooner  or 
later  relapses.  If  a  man  is  cured  of  rheumatism,  he 
may  present  the  evidence  of  cure  that  is  satisfactory 
to  himself,  his  friends,  and  the  critics  ;  but  he  may 
sometime  have  the  rheumatism  again.  If  he  does, 
would  this  disprove  the  claim  that  he  was  once 
cured  ? 

I  consider  myself  a  pioneer  in  this  department  of 
pathology  and  therapeutics.  I  think  the  medical 
profession  will  give  me  the  credit,  as  will  the  public, 
of  studying  this  subject  from  the  standpoint  of 
pathology  and  bringing  the  drunkard  and  his  malady 
into  the  scope  of  medical  study,  placing  him  among 
the  patients  of  the  medical  profession  rather  than 
among  the  convicts  and  the  "sinners."  I  know  of 
no  reason  why  the  drunkard,  after  he  is  a  drunkard, 
should  be  considered  a  moral  reprobate  any  more 
than  the  patient  with  typhoid  fever  or  consump- 
tion. 

My  treatment  for  drunkenness  is  a  method  of 
cure  no  different  from  the  general  principles  of 
treatment  employed  by  physicians  in  other  diseases. 
I  am  no  magician,  but  a  physician.  I  have  never 
dabbled  in  hypnotism  ;  I  know  nothing  about  it.  I 
am  not  a  shrine  builder.  I  have  done  nothing  but 


DRCXKKXXKSS    IS   CURABLE.  305 

study,  as  best  I  could,  drunkenness  as  a  disease,  and 
have  looked  for  a  method  of  curing  the  disease.  I 
admit  that  the  success  is  phenomenal  ;  but  when  I 
began  the  treatment  of  drunkenness  I  was  the  only 
man  in  the  world  who  was  treating  drunkennc- 
a  disease,  exclusively  from  the  standpoint  of  medi- 
cine. If  thousands  of  patients  sought  a  cure  and 
were  cured,  it  was  simply  because  the  treatment  was 
a  success. 

I  may  sav  that  a  few  years  ago  the  few  insti- 
tutions treating  inebriates  prescribed  treatment 
which  was  largely  "moral"  in  method.  Typhoid 
patients  should  also  have  good  "moral  "  treatment; 
but  if  this  method  is  useful  in  either  typhoid  or 
drunkenness,  it  is  just  as  much  an  "  indication  "  in 
one  as  in  the  other.  I  admit  that  many  drunkards 
are  cured  by  these  moral  means.  Many  cure  them- 
selves by  will  power.  This  fact  proves  nothing 
against  the  theory  that  drunkenness  is  a  disease  and 
is  curable.  Typhoid  patients  will  recover  without 
treatment;  so  do  patients  with  rheumatism,  scarlet 
fever,  diphtheria,  measles,  consumption,  cholera,  and 
rellow  fever  ;  yet  these  diseases  receive  treatment. 
Perhaps  all  that  these  need  are  moral  lectures.  As 
is  well  known,  these  diseases  arc  self-limited.  But 
drunkenness  is  also  a  self-limited  disease  in  this 
same  sense.  The  duration  of  drunkenness  is,  how- 
ever, very  long  in  most  cases  ;  but  in  a  large  per 
cent,  of  cases  the  disease  is  self-limited.  Almost 
any  middle-aged  man  can  recall  people  whom  he 
has  known  for  twenty-five  years,  who  were,  in  youth 


306        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

or  early  life,  drunkards,  but  who  stopped  drinking 
without  treatment,  or  any  particular  moral  influence 
above  the  average.  The  disease  "spontaneously  " 
came  to  an  end. 

There  is  no  disease .  caused  by  poison,  in  the 
nosology  of  human  ailments,  which  is  so  speedily 
and  successfully  cured  by  scientific  medication  as 
drunkenness.  The  only  reason  drunkenness  is  so 
prevalent  is  simply  because  it  was  not  considered  a 
disease,  nor  was  it  treated  as  such. 

All  diseases  have  had  this  same  history,  even 
during  the  past  few  hundred  years.  In  the  middle 
ages  the  physicians  of  Europe  were  driven  from  the 
country,  and  the  clergy  took  care  of  the  sick. 
Many  of  these  physicians  had  a  scientific  medical 
education,  derived  from  the  University  of  Alex- 
andria. 

The  history  of  diseases,  therefore,  shows  that 
little  by  little  they  were  taken  from  the  domain  of 
"sin"  and  immorality  and  classed  under  the  rules 
of  science. 

The  cure  of  drunkenness  is  not  difficult.  It 
yields  readily  to  medicine.  Treatment  will  antag- 
onize the  "habit"  —the  craving  for  liquor.  In 
thousands  of  cases  which  I  have  personally  observed 
I  have  seldom  known  the  craving  for  liquor  to  last 
the  patient  over  three  or  four  days  after  beginning 
the  treatment.  As  is  generally  known  I  give  the 
patient  liquor,  which  he  takes  with  him.  He  will 
rarely  drink  it  after  the  third  or  fourth  day. 

There  is  much   criticism  on  my  method  of  cure. 


DRUNKENNESS    IS   CTKAI3LE.  307 

No  physician  treats  all  his  cases  of  typhoid  alike, 
nor  do  all  physicians  treat  them  alike.  Doctors  do 
not  agree  on  the  method  of  treating  this  or  any 
other  disease,  so  far  as  special  methods  are  em- 
ployed. They  probably  haye  no  special  formula 
which  they  would  agree  to  publish  as  a  cure  for 
typhoid.  In  all  diseases  as  treated  by  competent 
physicians  these  gentlemen  apply  the  general  prin- 
ciples of  therapeutics  to  the  "indications"  given  by 
the  disease,  and  do  the  best  they  know  how.  They 
cure  their  patients  by  the  knife,  or  drug,  or  antag- 
onistic poison,  as  the  ease  may  seem  to  demand. 

I  claim  that  the  drugs  and  methods  I  use  are 
harmless  to  everything  but  drunkenness.  The  cure 
of  drunkenness  does  not  cause  insanity,  tuberculosis, 
hypertrophy,  gangrene,  inflammation,  or  degenera- 
tion. Neither  does  the  cure  for  drunkenness  cure 
these  other  diseases.  If  a  drunkard  happens  to 
haye  a  tumor  of  the  brain,  the  drunkenness  can  be 
cured.  If  he  has  epilepsy,  insanity,  chorea,  or  is  a 
criminal,  or  if  he  has  tubercles  or  cancer,  a  hob- 
nailed liver  or  Bright's  disease,  curing  his  drunken- 
ness is  not  likely  to  have  any  direct  effect  on  these 
diseases,  except  to  such  extent  as  is  unavoidably 
incident  to  the  removal  of  alcoholic  aggravation  by 
the  tonic  effect  of  the  remedies.  A  man  may  " 
insane,"  have  epilepsy,  chorea,  or  tubercles  after 
amputation  of  a  leg  for  a  railroad  injury;  but  tli 
results  cannot  properly  be  charged  to  amputation  of 
his  leg.  I  have  been  censured  greatly  for  not  mak- 
ing my  cure,  or  my  formula!,  public.  Doctors  gen- 


308        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

erally  do  not  believe  in  cures,  though  they  may 
believe  in  the  general  principles  of  treatment  of 
disease.  I  have  no  formulae  to  make  public.  There 
is  no  secret  in  the  cure  of  drunkenness,  nor  is  there 
anything  to  reveal  except  a  knowledge  of  the  gen- 
eral principles  of  the  cure  of  disease.  If  a  doctor 
were  to  reveal  his  formula  for  the  treatment  of 
typhoid  fever  he  would  be  considered  erratic,  and 
the  public  would  be  unwise  to  use  it  without  the 
advice  and  presence  of  a  physician.  It  is  as  impos- 
sible to  publish  formulae  that  the  public  can  use  for 
the  cure  of  diseases  as  it  is  to  publish  a  formula  for 
the  surgical  extirpation  of  cancers  for  the  use  of 
the  public. 


CHATTER  XXV. 
HOW  TO  TREAT  THE  DISEASE. 

IT  IS  verv  wicked  when  a  sober,  temperate, 
healthy  man  drinks.  It  is  likewise  an  immo- 
rality for  women  to  drink,  however  old  and  fine  the 
wine.  These  things  arc-  vices,  because  such  practice 
and  such  acts  cause  disease.  It  is  a  vice  to  do  any- 
thing which  causes  ill  health  or  disease.  It  mav  be 
a  vice  to  sit  up  too  late  at  night  and  rise  too  late  in 
the  morning.  It  is  a  vice  to  drink  water  and  not 
know  that  the  water  is  above  suspicion  in  relation  to 
the  typhoid  germ.  It  is  a  vice  to  visit  the  sick  if 
they  have  contagious  or  infectious  disease  ;  such  a 
visitor  may  contract  the  disease  and  give  it  to 
others.  It  is  a  vice  to  wear  tight  shoes  ;  they  de- 
form the  feet  and  create  corns.  It  is  a  vice  to  wear 
tight  corsets  ;  they  deform  incarnate  divinity  and 
thus  insult  the  finest  conception  of  beauty  in  the 
mind  of  Him  who  created  the  universe  and  its  glory 
1>\  final  design.  These  things  are  all  vices,  wicked, 
and  immoral,  because  they  injure  good  health,  or 
good  form,  or  directly  cause  diseases. 

But  the  la\v  says  that  intent  and  consciousness 
are  essential  factors  of  human  conduct  in  relation  to 
vice  and  crime.  Cain  \vould  not  have  been  branded 
and  made  a  wanderer  if  he  had  killed  his  brother 

309 


3io        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

Abel  by  accident  and  unintentionally.  In  most  of 
the  vices  of  human  conduct,  however,  there  is  a 
very  lively  consciousness  that  the  divine  order  of 
nature  and  heredity  are  being  violated.  Social  dis- 
sipations which  breed  sybaritism,  indigestion,  lazi- 
ness, indolence,  and  which  certainly  predispose  to 
disease,  are  vices  which  equal  or  exceed  the  vice 
of  drinking,  in  relation  to  human  excellence,  useful- 
ness, and  diseases. 

The  vice  of  drinking  causes  inebriety,  and  ine- 
briety is  a  disease.  It  is  a  disease  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  caused  by  a  poison.  Nearly  all  diseases 
are  caused  by  poisons.  In  fact,  every  disease  which 
is  not  a  mechanical  injury  is  the  direct  or  remote 
result  of  a  poison.  Now  this  law  must  hold  true  if 
inverted.  It  is  also  true,  therefore,  that  all  poison, 
in  sufficient  quantity  and  long  enough  continued, 
will  cause  disease.  It  is  impossible  to  avoid  the 
logic  of  this  situation  ;  but  if  the  logic  can  be 
destroyed,  the  fact  cannot  be,  and  it  remains  true 
that  alcohol,  if  continued  long  enough  in  sufficient 
quantity,  will  cause  disease  —  the  disease  of  inebri- 
ety. Now,  it  is  a  vice  to  swallow  a  "culture"  of 
typhoid  bacilli  in  a  glass  of  sparkling  water.  The 
entrance  of  these  germs  into  the  system  is  by  rea- 
son of  wicked  human  conduct.  Intelligence  and 
volition  could  have  prevented  it,  and,  therefore,  it 
is  wicked.  But,  now,  if  the  germs  multiply  in  the 
system  and  cause  the  typhoid  fever,  this  result  is 
not  a  vice,  because  intent,  consciousness,  and  voli- 
tion have  no  more  to  do  with  it. 


HOW   TO   TREAT   THE    DISEASE.  311 

When  a  man  begins  drinking  the  act  is  criminal 
and  a  vice.  If  the  law  ever  interferes,  this  is  the 
time  and  place  to  do  it.  If  a  man  is  ever  arrested 
for  drinking,  it  should  be  when  he  takes  his  first 
drink.  It  matters  not  whether  the  glass  is  social 
and  in  a  bar  room,  or  whether  it  is  in  "my  lady's  " 
parlor  or  at  "  mv  lord's  "  dinner  table.  The  onlv 
method  of  dealing  with  drinking  bv  law  is  to  deal 
with  it  when  it  is  a  vice,  in  relation  to  intent,  con- 
sciousness, and  volition;  not  when  it  is  a  disease  and 
no  longer  subject  to  intelligent  human  control. 

The  law  does  not  deal  with  a  man  who  carelessly 
drinks  typhoid  poison  from  his  well.  The  world 
pities  him  for  this  little  vice.  If  the  typhoid  patient, 
in  the  delirium  of  fever,  or  as  a  result  of  brain  disor- 
der caused  by  the  disease,  kills  his  attendant  or 
steals  propertv,  the  law  justifies  or  condones  the 
conduct  on  the  ground  of  moral  irresponsibility. 
Such  a  criminal  is  legally  innocent  because  morally 
irresponsible.  The  law  also  permits  the  vice  of 
drinking  in  the  case  of  temperate  and  healthy  per- 
sons. But  if  such  people,  when  drunk,  commit 
crimes,  the  law  holds  them  responsible.  Xo  intoxi- 
cated man  is  in  his  right  mind.  Oftentimes  drunken 
men  are  unconscious  and  delirious,  and  when  recov- 
ered from  a  debauch  have  no  recollection  of  what 
occurred  in  relation  to  themselves  during  the 
drunken  fit.  Such  men  are  morally  irresponsible 
and  should  be  legally  innocent. 

But  justice  and  sentiment  sav  that  the  man  who 
knowingly  drinks  and  while  intoxicated  commits 


312        THE    NON-HEREDITY  OF    INEBRIETY. 

crime  should  be  punished,  because  he  consciously 
and  with  intent  drank  the  liquor.  "  Letting  the  law 
take  its  course  will  tend  to  prevent  drinking."  This 
is  very  doubtful.  But  if  it  is  true,  there  is  no 
earthly  moral  reason  why  the  same  rule  of  law 
should  not  be  applied  to  consumption.  It  is  a  fact  of 
human  knowledge  that  consumption  is  contagious. 
If  a  person  knowingly  exposes  himself  to  such  a 
disease,  and,  taking  it  himself,  gives  it  to  others, 
he  commits  a  crime.  It  is  a  crime  for  a  person  with 
consumption  to  go  about  among  people  exposing 
them  to  this  disease.  Why  not  arrest  the  consump- 
tive and  put  him  in  an  antiseptic  jail  ?  Why  not 
arrest  and  fine  him  for  every  public  appearance  upon 
the  street  ? 

When  a  man  has  been  drunk  three  or  four  times 
he  is  an  inebriate.  If  he  gets  tipsy  at  the  township 
election  in  April,  and  again  at  the  city  election 
three  months  later,  and  again  three  months  later  at 
the  fall  elections,  the  chances  are,  if  he  is  a  young, 
susceptible  individual,  that  he  will  get  drunk  every 
three  months  the  next  summer,  whether  he  attends 
the  elections  or  not.  During  the  first  year  his  drink- 
ing was  a  vice,  but  during  the  second  summer  and 
as  long  as  he  continues  it  his  periodical  drinking 
will  be  the  result  of  inebriety.  He  drinks  because 
he  is  a  drunkard. 

If  a  young  man  imbibes  too  much  at  Mrs.  A's 
party  on  New  Year's,  and  again  at  the  club  about 
the  first  of  February,  and  at  a  fashionable  dinner  the 
first  of  March,  and  at  college  alumni  meeting  the 


]!()\V    TO    TREAT   THE    DISEASE.  313 

first  of  April,  that  young"  man  is  an  inebriate.  He 
will,  other  things  being  equal,  continue  to  drink  and 
have  one  of  those  horrible  debauches  every  month. 
Perhaps  a  vicious  or  a  too  highly  seasoned  social 
life  may  cause  a  shortening"  of  this  monthly  rhythm  ; 
perhaps  remorse  or  the  tears  of  .his  mother  may 
lengthen  it  ;  but  all  the  same,  your  young  man,  as*  a 
result  of  the  vice  of  drinking,  is  an  inebriate  of  the 
periodical  variety. 

At  periodical  times  then,  young-  men  will. 
result  of  disease,  become  intoxicated.  The  auto- 
matic craving  will  return,  and,  aided  and  abetted  by 
other  inebriates  and  comforted  by  society,  solaced 
by  drunken  companionship,  these  periodical  de- 
bauches will  continue. 

The  period  of  sobriety  is  not  true  reform.  It  is 
not  cure.  It  is  simply  a  symptom.  It  is  a  delusion 
of  cure.  It  is  not  reform.  It  is  the  rhythmical 
reaction  of  the  disease.  It  is  only  the  opposite 
swing  of  the  pathological  pendulum  of  inebriety, 
which  runs  backwards  into  darkness  ;  swings  out 
again  into  the  light  ;  with  this  play  between  light 
and  shadow  it  ticks  off  the  hours  of  inevitable  des- 
tiny and  impending  fate. 

Suppose  that  punishment,  the  will,  confinement, 
moral  suasion,  or  other  mental  force  or  moral  agency 
interfere  with  or  lengthen  this  period  of  sobriety  ? 
Is  this  a  cure  ?  Certainly,  such  methods  do  not 
cure.  The  disease  is  not  cured  by  such  means, 
even  if  the  inebriate  is  confined  in  prison  for  years 
and  the  enforced  period  of  sobriety  is  maintained. 


3H        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

As  soon  as  liberated  the  ex-prisoner  will  get  drunk 
and  will  continue  his  regular  debauches. 

In  fatal  cases  of  alcoholic  poisoning,  local  inflam- 
mations of  the  stomach,  cerebral  congestion,  and 
effusions  are  found  ;  but  of  course  these  lesions  are 
not  inebriety  and  the  cure  of  such  lesions  does  not 
cure  inebriety.  From  these  facts,  and  that  these 
lesions  will  cure  themselves  or  disappear  if  the 
alcohol  is  withdrawn,  it  was  deemed  by  those  inter- 
ested in  the  treatment  that  moral  elevation  of 
character  and  instruction  in  the  terrible  pathologi- 
cal consequences  of  alcoholism  were  the  proper 
means  of  curing  the  bad  habit  of  drinking  alcohol 
to  excess. 

To  further  this  most  desirable  end  the  public 
schools  have  been  enlisted  to  teach  the  pathology 
of  alcoholism.  I  have  seen  charts  of  stomach  dis- 
ease, due  to  alcohol,  used  to  teach  public  school 
pupils,  which  more  resembled  Joseph's  coat  in 
variety  and  beauty  of  coloring  than  a  diseased  stom- 
ach or  a  piece  by  one  of  the  old  masters.  I  sym- 
pathize most  sincerely  with  these  efforts  toward 
reform  ;  but  if  I  were  to  teach  pupils  the  terrors  of 
drunkenness  by  object  lessons,  I  would  show  them 
the  actual  drunkard  in  his  cups  or  in  his  prison  or 
the  police  court.  The  inebriate  is  no  secret.  He 
is  in  the  family,  by  the  fireside,  in  all  public  places. 
He  reels  along  the  streets ;  he  is  an  ever  present 
object-lesson  to  the  youth  of  the  country.  If  such 
education  would  cure  inebriety,  the  disorder  would 
have  passed  from  the  earth  ages  ago.  But  alas, 


HOW   TO   TREAT   THE    DISEASE.  3T5 

inebriety   cannot    be    prevented    or    cured    bv    such 
means. 

The  entire  abolishment  of  alcohol  from  the  earth 
would,  of  course,  prevent  inebriety.  No  problem  is 
clearer  as  a  demonstration  in  logic  ;  but  for  obvi- 
ous reasons  the  measure  of  prohibition  is  impossible 
to  carry  out.  The  law  is  difficult  to  establish  and 
is  usually  a  failure.  I  think  we  need  not  go  far  to 
find  the  reason  that  prohibition  has  thus  far  been 
impossible.  People  go  so  far  as  to  call  diM 
providential  and  the  remedv  the  invention  of  the 
devil.  It  is  indeed  a  pessimistic  conception  of 
this  world,  governed  by  law,  to  assume  that  Good- 
ness is  the  author  of  disease  and  Evil  the  author  of 
a  poison  which  can  inebriate,  but  which  is  intro- 
duced to  the  notice  of  humanity  as  a  remedy  for 
disease.  I  have  no  doubt  that  if  the  filth  disc 
were  destroyed  the  prohibition  of  alcohol  would  fol- 
low as  a  natural  and  sequential  result.  The  thought- 
ful reformer,  then,  will  in  time  be  more  skilful. 
He  will  agitate  the  question  of  the  suppression  of 
disease.  He  will  so  legislate  that  a  fine  will  be 
imposed  upon  persons  who  have  contagions,  and 
cities  and  the  state  will  be  subject  to  liability  for 
civil  damages  for  the  propagation  of  any  acute  dis- 
ease. 

The  manufacture  of  alcohol  could  be  suppressed 
by  law  ;  but  the  existence  of  the  acute  diseases 
could  also  be  suppressed  by  law.  For  nearly  half 
a  century  these  germ  poisons  have  been  classed  as 
the  "  preventable  diseases."  Then  why  are  they  not 


THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

prevented?  The  efforts  that  have  been  so  nearly 
wasted  in  the  vain  attempt  to  secure  prohibition, 
had  they  been  exerted  to  secure  good  sanitation, 
would  have  gone  far  toward  cleaning  up  the  earth. 

I  look  for  a  millennium  in  this  world,  character- 
ized by  the  suppression  of  all  poisons.  Poison  and 
poisoning  underlie  short  life,  all  the  sorrow  of  the 
world,  and  all  its  evil  and  poverty.  I  do  not  know 
of  a  grief,  an  evil,  a  sin,  a  crime  or  vice  that  can- 
not be  traced  to  poison  as  its  ancestor.  Chil- 
dren's graves,  Rachel's  tears,  the  poverty  of  the 
widow  and  the  orphan  are  due  to  poison.  It  is 
poison  that  causes  disease,  that  causes  the  human 
mind  to  lose  its  balance,  that  causes  premature 
death. 

Twenty  or  thirty  years  ago  if  a  man  had  given  an 
opinion  that  inebriety  is  a  disease,  he  would  have  been 
considered  a  subject  fit  for  asylum  retirement.  In 
the  first  place,  the  fashionable  drinker  would  not  have 
felt  complimented  by  classifying  him  among  a  list  of 
pathological  unfortunates.  In  society  a  healthy 
sentiment  was  springing  up  against  the  vice  of 
drunkenness.  Temperance  lecturers  had  the  field 
and  temperance  organizations  saved  and  prevented 
all  the  inebriety  possible.  But  now  the  number 
who  hold  that  inebriety  is  not  a  disease  and  curable 
by  scientific  means  is  steadily  diminishing.  I  do  not 
deny  that  a  man  may  stop  drinking  by  moral  influ- 
ences, or  by  effort  of  the  will ;  but  I  deny  that  such 
influences  cure  inebriety.  The  man  does  not  drink, 
but  his  inebriety  is  not  cured.  He  knows  that  it  is 


HOW   TO   TREAT   THE    DISEASE.  317 

his  will  which  prevents  him  from  drinking.  The 
prevention  of  inebriety  depends  upon  moral  influ- 
ences, if  good  sanitation  and  good  society  are  equal  ; 
but  the  will,  suasion,  good  morals,  punishment,  and 
all  cannot  cure  inebriety. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 
CAUSES  OF  RELAPSES  AFTER  THE  CURE. 

A  SMALL  per  centum  of  the  cured  inebriates 
relapse,  and  a  small  ratio  of  these  relapses  die 
from  some  disease  of  chronic  character,  usually  of 
the  brain  or  other  parts  of  the  nervous  system. 
Critics  in  the  medical  profession,  who  freely  attrib- 
ute these  deaths  to  the  treatment,  do  not  always 
take  the  trouble  to  state  the  nature  of  the  disease,  nor 
whether  the  remedies  caused  the  death,  nor  if  the 
death  was  caused  by  the  absence  of  an  accustomed 
poison.  The  critics  in  these  cases,  who  attribute  the 
cause  of  death  to  the  remedies  used  to  cure  the 
inebriety,  prove  too  much  for  the  safety  and  relia- 
bility of  the  profession.  The  remedies  used  are 
drugs  which  are  used  by  the  profession  everywhere 
in  the  treatment  of  diseases.  If  these  remedies 
kill  the  inebriate  patient,  then  I  can  see  no  reason, 
from  the  standpoint  of  this  professional  criticism, 
why  every  fatal  case  of  disease  attended  by  a  phy- 
sician should  not  be  a  legal  subject  for  the  coroner. 
But  physicians  who  make  this  criticism  are  not 
sincere.  If  they  are  sincere  they  are  ignorant.  In 
my  opinion  the  causes  which  lead  a  person  to  drink, 
before  he  has  drank  enough  to  cause  the  disease  of 

318 


CAUSES  OF  RELAPSES  AFTER  CURE.    319 

inebriety,  are  the  reasons  why  he  relapses  after  a  cure. 
It  must  be  understood  clearly,  first,  in  explaining  this 
matter,  that  the  causes  which  lead  persons  to  begin 
drinking  are  very  numerous ;  but  after  they  have 
become  inebriates  the  cause  of  the  periodical  de- 
bauches is  the  rhythmic  revival  of  the  craving  for 
drink,  which  craving  is  the  chief  symptom  of  the 
disease  of  inebriety.  It  must  be  also  clearly  under- 
stood that  whatever  bodily  or  mental  disease  an 
inebriate  may  happen  to  have,  this  disease  is  not  the 
inebriety,  nor  does  it  cause  the  craving  for  drink. 

I  think  the  demonstration  now  appears  clear  that 
the  primary  causes  which  lead  a  person  to  drink 
are  the  causes  which  bring  about  a  relapse.  In 
many  cases  the  patient  is  found  to  be  a  chronic 
invalid.  These  patients  usually  begin  to  take  alcohol 
as  a  remedy.  Generally  it  is  first  prescribed  per- 
functorily by  a  physician  to  get  rid  of  a  troublesome 
patient.  In  time  the  alcohol  causes  inebriety  and 
the  craving  brings  about  periodical  debauches.  A 
cure  follows.  But  the  invalid  has  another  parox- 
ysm. He  is  ill  and  has  a  physician.  He  is  dosed 
with  quinine,  morphine,  opium,  sulfonal,  chloral,  and 
other  narcotic  drugs.  Very  likely  he  is  given  alco- 
hol in  some  form,  either  tincture  or  in  disguise. 
Either  of  these  narcotic  drugs  may  so  deprave  the 
nerve  centres  that  the  patient  may  mistake  the  poi- 
soning as  a  call  for  drink,  and  either  purposely  or 
inadvertently  begin  drinking  again,  and  thus  re-es- 
tablish the  disease.  These  chronic  invalids  are 
usually  the  victims  of  old  malarial  diseases.  They 


320        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

have  dyspepsia  and  occasional  malarial  attacks. 
Very  often  they  are  great  drug  takers  and  undertake 
to  swallow  each  patent  nostrum,  and  all  of  them,  as 
prescribed  by  friends.  These  nostrums  all  contain 
from  ten  per  cent,  to  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  alcohol. 
One  bottle  of  an  ordinary  patent  "bitters"  will 
cause  the  staunchest  veteran  among  the  cured  ine- 
briates to  lapse.  The  cured  inebriate  cannot  drink 
alcohol  without  causing  a  return  of  his  disease. 

Many  inebriate  cases  have  insanity,  or  a  brain 
disease  —  even  a  remote  alcoholic  lesion — a 
sclerosis,  or  a  degeneration  of  nerve  tissue.  No 
matter  if  alcohol  did  cause  the  remote  lesion,  what- 
ever it  may  be  ;  this  lesion  is  not  a  part  of  the 
inebriety.  The  inebriety  exists  independent  of  the 
insanity,  degeneration,  or  sclerosis.  The  inebriety 
is  cured,  but  this  does  not  cure  the  other  diseases. 
But  if  the  patient  is  insane  he  may  very  likely  again 
begin  drinking  just  as  he  did  in  the  first  place,%  sim- 
ply because  he  is  insane.  If  some  brain  lesion,  as 
a  tumor  or  a  disease  of  the  arteries  or  of  the  menin- 
ges,  is  present,  any  of  these  may  have  caused  the 
beginning  of  the  drinking;  but  as  they  are  not  cured 
because  the  cure  for  inebriety  has  no  direct  effect 
upon  them,  they  may  once  more  lead  the  cured  ine- 
briate to  begin  drinking.  Some  patients  with  ine- 
briety are  not  so  moral  as  they  might  be.  They 
indulge  passions  over  which  they  should  have  more 
control.  Sometimes  a  disease  of  brain  or  other 
tissue  may  cause  a  natural  passion  to  assume  quali- 
ties and  gain  indulgence  which  is  debasing  and  ruin- 


CAUSES  OF   RELAPSES  AFTER   CURE.        321 

ous.  To  my  certain  knowledge  a  large  number  of 
cured  inebriates  have  lapsed  as  a  consequence  of  a 
debauch  of  the  sensual  passions  in  the  society  of 
the  brothel. 

Some  inebriates,  like  other  men,  are  vicious  and 
ill-tempered.  They  do  not  court  the  best  society. 
They  may  indulge  in  desperate  methods  of  chance 
to  gain  money.  They  may  speculate,  even  gamble, 
or  "  plunge  "  in  horse  races.  They  mav  play  a  los- 
ing game,  and,  when  all  is  lost,  once  m<  the 
mental  anesthesia  of  alcoholic  debauch.  Some  of 
this  class  of  persons,  or  a  varietv,  are  over-per- 
suaded bv  their  friends  to  have  their  inebriety  cured. 
They  submit,  and  while  acknowledging  that  they 
have  no  craving  for  liquor  will  voluntarily  seek  boon 
companions  and  resume  drinking.  The  cure  of  in- 
ebriety will  not  prevent  a  man  from  voluntarily  resum- 
ing drink.  The  cur>  not  bind  a  man  with  any 
description  of  bond  or  fetter  ;  it  simplv  sets  him 
free.  If  he  'wilfully  strangles  his  liberty,  alcohol 
will  again  bind  him  with  the  craving  and  agony  of 
disease-. 

Business  complications  are  the  chief  can- 
suicide.  The  object  of  human  life,  human  work  and 
destiny  is  to  earn  a  living.  One-half  a  man's  life 
exists  in  the  things  around  him  which  relate  to  his 
work,  his  worry,  his  business,  and  his  life.  One-half 
his  life  is  therefore  in  the  hands  of  his  friends,  his 
rivals,  and  his  enemies.  Competition  in  business 
affairs  is  very  close.  There  is  no  reason  that  the 
cured  inebriate  should  not  meet  with  business  mis- 


322        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

fortune.  In  fact,  the  truth  is  that  most  of  the  cured 
inebriates  have  a  business  position  to  regain  that 
was  lost,  and  are  behind  in  the  race.  Many  of  them 
fail.  They  are  not  always  equal  to  competition  and 
rivalry,  and  they  must  meet,  with  less  preparation 
and  ability,  the  general  changes  in  public  financial 
affairs  and  business  relations.  They  are  not  men- 
tally equal  to  other  people,  perhaps,  who  have  never 
been  inebriates,  in  endurance  of  the  strain  of  mis- 
fortune, or  business  failure,  or  even  the  disappoint- 
ments of  a  want  of  success.  These  men  are  all  in 
dangerous  positions.  They  do  not  have  the  craving 
for  liquor,  but  feeling  mentally  weak  and  hoping  the 
stimulant  may  help  tide  over  the  mental  strain  they 
cautiously  begin  drinking.  Very  few  cures  under 
such  circumstances  ever  survive  the  first  drink. 
These  men  were  tempted  in  this  manner  to  begin 
drinking.  It  was  such  a  nervous  constitution  as 
this  and  such  business  relations  that  caused  them 
to  begin  drinking,  and  these  original  causes  act 
once  again  with  the  same  effect. 

The  social  relations  of  alcohol  are  varied  as  are 
the  phases  and  conditions  of  human  society.  Wine 
is  a  fashion,  a  luxury,,  and  an  instinctive  remedy  for 
sickness  and  accident.  The  good  and  the  noble, 
the  virtuous,  the  refined,  as  well  as  the  wicked  and 
the  depraved,  all  have  their  times,  moods,  places,  de- 
sires, or  necessities,  to  which  alcohol  is  adapted,  as 
whisky,  brandy,  wine,  beer,  absinthe,  or  other 
drinks.  The  club  men,  the  saloon  habitues,  the 
dealers  in  liquor,  the  medical  profession,  all  exert 


CAUSES  OF  RELAPSES  AFTER  CURE.   323 

an  influence  which  is  far  reaching  and  powerful. 
Drinking  is  a  custom  of  Christendom,  and  custom  is 
hereditary  by  the  force  of  tradition.  The  custom 
of  treating  is  a  social  force  as  strong  as  brotherly 
love,  or  the  bonds  of  church  or  party  in  social  life. 

The  cured  inebriate  returns  to  his  club,  or  his 
friends  among  the  men  whu  frequent  saloons.  He 
meets  the  people  who  sip  wine  at  fashionable  din- 
ners. He  encounters  friends,  old  or  newly  made, 
whose  impulse  to  treat  may  be  irresistibl 

Through  some  of  these  influences  the  cured 
inebriate  may  be  tempted  to  risk  a  drink  when  once 
more  the  tide  of  alcohol  rises  abo\<  ;;id  rea- 

son, and  once  more  the  king  of  debauchery  —  the 
craving  for  liquor — is  enthroned  as  ruler  of  brain  and 
destiny.  The  treating  custom  is  more  demoralizing 
than  plagues  and  pestilence  People  who  so  freelv 
vent  their  vengeance  in  words  upon  the  saloon- 
keeper do  not  stop  to  think  that  seventy-five  per 
centum  of  the  liquor  sold  is  bought  bv  the  man  who 
treats  and  is  given  to  the  man  who  drinks.  If  a  line 
of  ten  men  stand  1»  bar,  and  one  man  buvs 

ten   drinks,  the   saloonkeeper  sells   to  only  one  man 
who  drinks.      This   man  gives   awav  nine   drink 
as  many  companions,  and  among  these  may  happen 
to  stand  cured  inebriates  and   youthful  friends. 

Notwithstanding  all    these  causes  not   more  than 
five  per  centum  of  the  inebriates  cured  by  my  treat- 
ment lapse,  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain.     The  forces  of 
disease,  habit,  custom,  and  accident  must  prevail. 
But,  as   I   have  said,  the   cure  for   inebriety  will 


324        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

not  directly  cure  associated  diseases,  or  restore 
wealth,  or  re-establish  broken  family  relations,  nor 
prevent  final  death. 

A  study  of  the  subject  proves  most  remarkable 
things.  The  cure  of  inebriety  prevents  suicide 
among  the  class  of  inebriates  in  a  ratio  of  over  thirty 
per  centum.  It  lessens  insanity  among  the  class  of 
inebriates  eighty-five  per  centum  and  permanently 
cures  circular  insanity  caused  by  inebriety  in  all 
cases.  The  cure  has  re-established  thousands  of 
families  that  were  scattered  by  drunkenness,  pov- 
erty, and  divorce.  It  has  already  saved,  by  the 
labor  of  cured  inebriates,  an  amount  of  money  that 
must  be  counted  by  millions.  The  wealth  of  the 
inebriate  class  has  grown  in  proportion  to  their  good 
morals,  temperance,  and  charity,  as  a  remote  result 
of  the  cure  for  inebriety. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
THE  RELATION"  OF  I'KOHIUITIOX  TO  SOHRIETY. 

'THEORETICALLY  the  problem  of  "tempcr- 
J-  ance,"  or  sobriety  or  total  abstinence,  seems 
to  be  easy  of  solution.  People  manufacture,  sell, 
tax,  and  drink  alcohol  and  become  drunkards.  The 
cure  then  rests  with  the  people  themselves,  who 
must  simply  stop  the  manufacture,  sale,  taxation, 
and  drinking  of  alcohol.  Of  course,  if  there  is  no 
alcohol,  people  cannot  drink  it. 

But  like  some  other  local  problems  this  theory 
will  not  work  in  practice.  Prohibition  has  never 
succeeded.  Neither  this  law  nor  the  laws  of  high 
license  appear  to  diminish  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  alcohol  and  its  consumption. 

As  everybody  knows,  the  government  tax  and 
local  taxation  by  cities  far  exceed  in  amount  the 
price  of  the  alcohol  manufactured  ;  but  it  would  no 
doubt  work  well  and  satisfactorily  were  the  govern- 
ment to  raise  only  a  single  tax,  not  upon  land  but 
upon  alcohol.  There  is  no  doubt  that  alcohol  would 
pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  government. 

The  states  of  Maine,  Iowa,  and  Kansas  are  the 
typical  prohibition  communities,  or  have  furnished 
the  lesson  to  be  learned  by  prohibition  legislation. 

325 


> 

326        THE   NON-HEREDITY  OF   INEBRIETY. 

The  lesson  simply  is  that  prohibitory  laws  do  not 
prevent  the  manufacture,  sale,  and  drinking  of  alco- 
hol. The  only  result  is  the  loss  of  revenue  from  the 
taxation  of  the  liquors.  The  unbiased  observer  will 
conclude  that  there  is  some  good  reason  for  the 
public's  taking  the  risk  of  the  penalty  of  the  law, 
with  the  added  penalty  of  strong  drink  ;  and  the 
true  moralist  and  humanitarian  will  try  to  find  out 
this  reason. 

There  are  some  general  rules  governing  the  pro- 
duction of  inebriety  which  appear  to  be  infallible. 
One  of  these  is  the  definite  relation  of  the  number 
of  inebriates  to  the  amount  of  liquor  consumed  by 
any  community.  There  is  no  such  disease  as  "spo- 
radic" inebriety.  The  inebriates  come  from  com- 
munities which  consume  the  proportional  amount  of 
alcohol.  If  there  is  no  alcohol  in  a  community, 
there  can  be  no  inebriety.  If  there  is  inebriety, 
alcohol  is  certainly  there,  and  the  consumption  of 
alcohol  will  result  in  the  production  of  a  definite 
amount  and  proportion  of  drunkards. 

Prohibitory  laws  do  not  prevent  inebriety.  At 
the  most  they  can  do  no  better  than  to  make  the 
traffic  in  liquors  secret  and  somewhat  difficult.  If 
the  people  refuse  to  observe  a  law,  the  law  is  a  dead 
letter.  Prohibitory  laws  are  dead  letters. 

This  being  the  fact,  it  is  well  to  inquire  after  the 
reasons.  I  think  they  are  very  clear  and  easily  un- 
derstood. In  the  first  place,  alcohol  is  used  as  a 
medicine.  It  is  prescribed  by  physicians.  I  pre- 
sume that  every  case  of  illness  is  treated  with  more 


RELATION  OF  PROHIBITION 

or  less  of  alcoholic  stimulants.  At  the  present 
stage  of  the  development  of  medical  science,  if  a 
physician  abjures  alcoholic  stimulants  he  is  de- 
nounced as  a  fanatic- — -a  "crank."  It  is  impossible 
to  treat  the  acute  fevers  as  satisfactorily  without  as 
with  alcoholic  liquors.  Alcohol,  in  these  disc 
supplies  a  food  force,  it  lowers  the  temperature  of 
fever,  it  stimulates,  and  perhaps  more  than  any  other 
drug  has  the  power  to  prevent  the  threatened  "heart 
failure."  Besides  this,  alcohol  is  a  powerful  germi- 
toxic.  It  antagonizes  the  symptoms  of  disease  and 
also  antagonizes  the  microbe.  All  prohibitory  laws 
recognize  this  fact,  and  the  use  of  alcohol  as  a  med- 
icine is  one  of  the  large  "holes  in  the  skimmer"  to 
be  found  in  all  prohibitory  statutes.  With  such  a 
law  including  such  a  necessary  exception  it  is  appar- 
ent that  sickness  and  the  anticipation  of  sick 
will  succeed  in  supplying  large  quantities  of  liquors 
for  actual  illness,  and  no  doubt  for  the  "comfort" 
of  many  a  prolonged  convalesce!!. 

Medical  science  must  develop  considerably  more 
before  alcohol  will  ever  be  stricken    from  its    li 
remedies.      But  this  time  and  this  development  will 
come.      The  signs  of  the  times  indicate  that  di- 
will,  perhaps  not  very  far   in   the   future,  be   tre 
by  specific  cures  instead   of    general    remedies,  as  is 
now  the  rule.     When  this  time  comes  there  will   be 
no  further  use  for  alcohol   in  disease.      Its  use  will 
be  limited  to  surgical   cases,  of  shock,  etc.,  and  the 
probability  is  that  it  will  be  superseded   by  some 
other  remedy  even  in  these  cases. 


328        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

But  at  present  the  reason  that  prohibition  fails  is 
because  people  use  alcohol  for  injuries.  Any  painful 
injury  affecting  the  sensory  nerves  causes  an  impres- 
sion of  heart  weakness.  In  extreme  cases  there  is 
shock  or  heart  failure.  Alcohol  is  the  remedy  for 
this  condition  of  things.  It  is  speedy  and  effi- 
cient. This  fact  has  made  alcohol  through  centuries 
of  use  the  instinctive  remedy  for  sudden  illness  and 
the  pain  and  shock  of  injury.  It  is  the  family 
remedy.  The  father  of  a  family,  as  well  as  the 
mother,  feels  a  sense  of  security  during  waves  of 
temperance  agitation  and  the  enactment  of  pro- 
hibitory laws,  if  there  is  locked  up  securely  in  the 
closet  a  bottle  of  good  brandy  for  the  emergencies 
of  illness  or  injury. 

But  alcohol  is  also  the  natural  antidote  for  un- 
sanitary conditions.  The  rule  of  American  cities  is 
to  putrefy  sewage  in  rivers  or  other  public  places, 
polluting  the  air,  soil,  and  water  with  the  germs  of 
disease. 

The  relation  of  sanitation  and  intemperance  is 
interactive.  No  doubt  can  be  sustained  that  un- 
sanitary conditions  and  resultant  illness  underlie  in- 
temperance. But  the  result  of  intemperance,  or 
inebriety,  also  aids  the  progress  of  disease.  A 
drinking  community  has  very  little  physical  resist- 
ance to  disease.  Pneumonia  is  generally  a  fatal 
disease  to  an  inebriate.  Inebriety  predisposes  peo- 
ple to  take  diseases  and  lessens  their  ability  to  sur- 
vive. It  is  true  that  alcohol  resists  disease  poison, 
and  it  is  also  true  that  inebriety  has  little  or  no  re- 


RELATION  OF  PROHIBITION'  TO  SOBRIETY.     329 

sistance  to  disease.  Unsanitary  conditions,  then, 
cause  disease  and  cause  inebriety,  which  aids  the 
fatal  consequences  of  diseases.  The  true  method 
of  prohibition  should  be  to  prohibit  the  unsanitary 
conditions. 

People  overwork  and  get  rich  in  America,  or  else 
they  fail  and  \vorrv.  Kither  condition  brings  neuras- 
thenia, and  may  bring-  inebriety.  The  great  race  in 
this  country  is  the  struggle  for  money.  A  feu  years 
ago  one  quarter  of  a  million  gave  a  man  all  the 
reputation  he  desired  and  sought  ;  but  now  there 
are  too  many  examples  of  many  millions  in  a 
fortune,  and  the  index  of  wealth  which  now  satisfies 
human  ambition  must  point  to  the  figures  of  the 
multi-millionaire. 

Overwork  and  worry  create  physical  and  mental 
conditions  which  demand  a  remedy.  Alcohol  is 
the  remedy.  It  anesthetizes  the  worry  and  pain 
and  the  fatigue  of  overwork.  It  supplies  the  pi. 
of  rest  and  vacation.  The  struggling  business  man 
takes  very  little  rest.  He  becomes  a  slave  to  his 
work,  with  his  soul  and  thought  and  life  bent  to 
one  purpose  —  to  get  rich  if  he  can.  lie  sends  his 
family  away  on  vacation  visits,  but  stays  at  his  place 
of  business  himself.  This  man  may  gain  the  whole 
world  ;  he  may  instead  lose  his  life  ;  but  at  any  r 
his  greatest  danger  is  inebriety.  The  business-men 
—  the  overworkcrs  of  America — find  alcohol  to  be 
a  remedy  for  fatigue  and  worry,  and  a  fashionable 
congratulation  for  business  success  ;  and  these  men 
will  not  observe  prohibitory  laws.  They  may  ac- 


330        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

quiesce  in  a  prohibitory  statute,  for  philanthropic 
reasons,  but  these  gentlemen  take  good  care  to 
know  where  their  supply  of  necessary  medicine  is 
located. 

But  the  greatest  difficulty  prohibition  encounters 
is  the  craving  for  strong  drink  which  belongs  to  the 
inebriate  as  a  symptom  of  his  disease.  The  ratio 
of  inebriety  to  the  population  is  very  large  in  the 
unsanitary  towns  of  the  United  States.  There  are 
well-known  and  recognized  periodical  inebriates, 
secret  inebriates,  and  inebriates  who  deny  that  they 
drink  ;  but  the  larger  class  of  this  description  are 
the  moderate  drinkers,  who  do  not  get  drunk  but 
who  drink  habitually  every  day.  The  latter  class  do 
not  drink  secretly,  but  are  those  so  considered  tem- 
perate drinkers,  who  can  "  control  their  appetites." 
These  inebriates  control  their  appetites  very  well 
indeed,  after  their  appetites  are  fully  satisfied  each 
day,  or  every  few  days.  But  if  these  gentlemen 
attempt  total  abstinence,  they  find  that  their  appe- 
tites are  not  controllable.  It  is  this  class  of  ine- 
briates which  consumes  the  larger  amount  of  alcohol 
that  is  consumed  in  drinking  cities. 

These  gentlemen  may  affect  to  acquiesce  in  pro- 
hibitory laws,  as  also  may  the  other  varieties  of 
inebriates.  Men  who  want  to  stop  drinking  will 
favor  prohibition,  through  a  vague  hope  that  spme- 
how  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  liquor  will  favor 
their  reform.  But  this  measure  and  vague  hope  will 
not  cure  inebriety.  The  whole  brotherhood  or  class 
of  inebriates  find  that  they  must  have  the  liquor, 


RELATION  OF  PROHIBITION  TO  SOBRIETY.     331 

even  if  the  laws  are  violated.  The  result  is  that  the 
law  is  violated,  and  the  disease  of  inebriety  pursues 
the  wretched  misery  of  its  way. 

In  my  opinion  these  are  the  principal  reasons 
why  prohibition  is  unable  to  prevent  the  manufac- 
ture, sale,  and  consumption  of  alcoholic  liquors. 

Some  worthy  people  suggest  that  if  the  general 
government  were  to  prohibit  the  manufacture  and 
sale  of  liquor,  the  law  would  be  a  success.  Such 
a  law  would  deprive  the  general  government  of  a 
revenue  nearly  equal  to  the  pension  appropriation, 
and  the  legislature  will  therefor  TV  conserva- 

tive in  the  enactment  of  laws  destroying  this  reve- 
nue. But  if  such  laws  v.  ''ted,  they  would  be 
dead  letters.  If  sanitation  were  such  that  people 
did  not  feel  the  want  of  liquors,  and  were  the  ine- 
briates all  cured,  I  truly  believe  that  prohibitory 
laws  could  be  enforced  ;  but  so  long  as  filth  and  the 
preventable  diseases  are  not  prohibited,  so  ' 
will  alcoholic  liquors  be  consumed  by  the  public 
as  beverage,  antidote,  or  poison.  Many  people 

:ii  to  think  that  reforms  can  be  brought  about 
by  a  sort  of  spasm  of  the  social  forces.  Outside  of 
war  no  such  occurrence  was  ever  known.  No  sani- 
tary laws  could  at  once  prevent  the  social  vices  or 
develop  public  morals.  Sanitation  and  the  devel- 
opment of  public  ethics  is  a  development  and  not 
an  enactment.  Thousands  of  years  were  required 
to  cause  the  development  of  human  public  morality 
in  the  historical  nations — from  the  epoch  of  human 
sacrifice  to  that  of  the  "  Golden  Rule."  If  there 


332        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

were  no  law  of  development  in  morals,  as  in  every- 
thing else,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  would  have 
been  preached  to  the  remote  ancestor  of  the  Kings 
of  Israel,  at  the  door  of  his  cave  dwelling,  more 
than  fifteen  centuries  before  the  Christian  era  ; 
before  the  exodus,  the  wilderness,  and  the  land  of 
Canaan. 

The  curse  of  humanity  is  poison.  It  is  poison 
which  underlies,  in  human  life,  early  death  and  all 
the  evils  of  disease  and  intemperance.  It  is  prevent- 
able disease  poison  which  shortens  the  average  dura- 
tion of  life  and  which  underlies  intemperance,  in- 
ebriety, and  all  their  associated  social  miseries.  But 
in  the  development  of  the  prohibition  of  all  poisons, 
which  must  finally  occur,  the  disease  poisons  must  go 
first. 

I  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  our  earnest 
and  enthusiastic  social  reformers  are  working  at  a 
great  disadvantage.  Too  little  preaching  is  heard 
on  the  subject  of  sanitation.  There  is  too  little 
effort  to  prevent  disease  and  too  much  to  prohibit 
a  confessed  remedy.  "Pure,  sparkling  water"  is 
apotheosized  as  the  God-given  drink  for  the  nations  ; 
but  through  the  neglect  of  sanitation  the  water  is 
polluted  with  the  germ  of  disease.  First  purify  the 
water,  then  burning  thirst,  whether  at  the  banquet 
table  or  in  the  harvest  field,  will  reject  the  drink 
which  may  antagonize  disease,  but  which  puts 
delirium  on  the  throne  of  reason  and  binds  the  brain 
in  the  shackles  of  decay. 

Sentiment  is  a  reformer  which  no  doubt  has  per- 


RELATION  OF  PROHIBITION  TO  SOBRIETY.     333 

formed  great  good  in  the  world  at  great  expense  ; 
but  the  condition  of  human  liberty,  in  relation  to 
government  at  the  present  stage  of  history,  weakens 
sentiment  as  a  force  in  reforms.  Sentiment  can  do 
little  more  now  than  sympathize  with  criminals,  or 
set  the  fashion  in  divss.  The  day  has  come  when 
science  is  asserting  her  claim  to  dictate  reforms  in 
politics,  government,  ethics,  and  other  social  institu- 
tions of  humanity.  Prohibition  of  alcohol  is  a 
sentiment ;  a  noble  one  it  may  be,  but  prohibition 
of  alcohol  without  the  sanitation  which  prohibits 
disease  poison  is  a  scientific  error. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
THE  RELATION  OF  WOMAN  TO  INEBRIETY. 

I  THINK  all  men  will  acknowledge  that  woman  is 
the  divinely  appointed  guardian  of  the  morals 
of  the  family  and  of  society.  We  must  acknowledge 
even  more  than  this,  which  is  that  woman  is  the 
moulder  of  character  as  it  is  developed  in  the  minds 
of  the  child  and  the  youth.  The  much  talked  about 
"woman's  sphere"  is  necessarily  the  world  which  is 
mapped  out  in  the  architectural  plans  of  the  home, 
and  whose  blessed  inhabitants  are  the  children  of  the 
household.  Here  she  is  the  arbiter  of  destiny,  the 
queen  of  the  realm ;  the  tutor,  the  mentor,  the 
mother,  the  very  angel  of  peace  and  good  will  to 
men.  The  family  is  the  unit  of  society  and-of  the 
great  aggregations  of  humanity  which  form  states 
and  nations.  You  will  find  very  little  in  any  state 
or  community  which  you  will  not  find  in  a  family, 
as  relates  to  moral  and  intellectual  development,  the 
true  business  and  work  of  life,  good  government, 
and,  in  fact,  the  general  phenomena  and  principles 
of  living  and  of  life.  The  family  circle  is  an  epitome 
of  national  life,  and  no  doubt  .different  families  show 
examples  of  the  various  forms  of  government,  as 
represented  by  absolute  monarchy,  aristocracy,  and 
government  by  the  people. 

334 


RELATION  OF   WOMAN   TO   INEBRIETY.     335 

But  the  home  is  the  school  where  early  impres- 
sions are  made  upon  the  plastic  brain  of  childhood  ; 
which  impressions  never  wear  away.  These  impres- 
sions shape  the  character  and  the  life  of  the  man  or 
woman  with  their  success  or  failure. 

There  is  more,  very  much  more,  in  education 
than  in  heredity,  as  life  is  manifested  by  human 
being's.  There  is  more  in  training  than  there  is  in 
heredity.  In  fact,  the  great  distinction  between  the 
human  creature  and  the  lower  species  is  the  fact 
that  animals  are  so  little  susceptible  to  education, 
inheriting  their  knowledge  ;  while  men  and  women 
inherit  so  little  and  their  capacity  for  education 
seems  to  be  bound  1« 

I  think  that  the  most  interesting  and  vital  ques- 
tions which  concern  mothers  are  those  of  inheritance 
and  education.  \Vc  hear  a  great  deal  about  a  bad 
and  good  inheritance.  The  gem-nil  rule  of  inher- 
itance is  that  no  direct  evil  hereditary.  The 
heredit  evil  is  simply  a  lack  of  devel- 
opment of  good  qualities.  Kvil  is  forgotten  by 
nature  in  hereditary  transmission.  It  is  true  that 
the  children  of  the  vicious  are  likely  to  be  also 
wicked  ;  but  if  they  inherit  a  small  capacity  for  good, 
and  are  educated  by  vicious  parents,  or  teachers,  or 
associates,  there  is  an  ample  reason  for  their  vicious- 
ness  without  calling  upon  heredity  to  explain  mat- 
ters by  the  admission  that  evil  is  ever  inherited. 
Use  and  disuse  underlie  all  development.  If  the 
human  brain  is  developed  it  must  be  by  use,  that  is, 
by  education,  school  education,  and  the  learning 


336        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF  INEBRIETY. 

given  by  the  practical  affairs  of  life  —  the  mental 
struggle  for  existence.  If  people  are  thus  well  edu- 
cated, they  will  transmit  the  capacity  for  good  edu- 
cation, good  mental  work,  and  a  high  ethical  devel- 
opment ;  but  only  the  capacity  will  be  inherited. 
The  education  itself  is  also  left  out  by  nature  in  re- 
production. 

But  we  say  evil  is  directly  transmitted.  This  is 
not  true.  The  only  evil  ever  inherited  by  anybody 
is  simply  a  small,  or  weak,  or  undeveloped  capacity 
for  being  educated  in  good  works.  Sometimes  we 
hear  people  say,  when  men  whose  ancestors  were 
wicked  do  badly,  that  " blood  will  tell."  But  it  is 
simply  in  these  cases  the  lack  of  "  blood  "  that  tells. 
The  human  heart  is  prone  to  evil.  All  lower  ani- 
mals, as  measured  by  the  human  standard,  are  not 
at  all  "  moral  "  in  their  lives.  High  morality  is  a 
development,  an  education,  the  capacity  for  which 
is  hereditary  ;  but  hereditary  crimes,  misdemeanors, 
and  immoralities,  as  well  as  diseases,  are  inherit- 
ances of  the  lack  of  a  developed  capacity  for  intel- 
lectual and  moral  education,  and,"  in  the  case  of  dis- 
ease, simply  an  inheritance  of  a  feeble  resistance  to 
the  causes  of  disease. 

The  primitive  man,  living  in  a  cave,  had  very 
little  moral  or  intellectual  development.  The  bar- 
barians and  semi-civilized  have  little  education  or 
capacity  for  learning;  but  all  people  know  that  if  a 
wild  tribe  is  educated,  generation  after  generation, 
the  race  will  improve  mentally  and  morally.  The 


RELATION"   OF   WOMAN    TO    INEBRIETY.      337 

hereditary  transmission  of  increased  brain  develop- 
ment will  give  them,  generation  after  generation,  a 
greater  brain  capacity  and  capability  for  improve- 
ment. 

No  deformity  resulting  from  disease,  or  accident, 
poison,  ignorance,  or  immoralities  is  ever  transmitted 
by  heredity.  Inebriety  is  not  hereditary.  No  dis- 
ease is  hereditary.  No  result  of  disease  of  any 
character  is  hereditary. 

The  inherited    capacity  for    education,  or   the  in- 
herited brain  development,  greatly  i 
made  of   it.       Kducation    in    method    and    extent    is 
perverted,  mistaken,  and  insufficient.      In  fact,  some 
of  our  best  thin!  that  collegiate  education  is 

not  adapted  to  the  needs  of  life  and  is  not  practical. 
These  men  say  that  the  mental  development  of  the 
youth  is  dwarfed  by  classics  and  starved  on  higher 
mathematics. 

It  is  surprising  how  few  of  the  world  movers  like 
Watt,  Kdison,  Kricsson,  and  hundreds  of  inveni 
pioneers,  and  discoverers,  are  or  were  college  edu- 
cated. Education  is  bound  by  creeds  and  tortured 
by  dogmas.  The  great  brain  capacity  inherited 
by  men  and  women  is  seen  in  the  biographies  of  our 
great  men  in  statesmanship,  science,  literature,  and 
other  departments.  Circumstances  put  these  men 
into  positions  where  their  native  good  sense  and 
wide  brain  inheritance  were  called  into  action.  As 
a  rule  these  men  were  uneducated,  as  we  understand 
this  term.  But  they  proved  equal  to  the  practical 


338        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

emergency  at  hand,  and  their  names  are  the  brilliant 
lights  of  the  history  which  tells  us  how  civilization 
was  developed. 

But  education  begins  in  the  home  where  the 
mother  is  tutor.  She  has  before  her  nature's  great 
seeming  miracle,  a  child,  with  a  brain  which  is  the 
product  of  the  thought,  the  experience,  the  loves, 
fears',  hopes,  grand  successes,  and  overwhelming  dis- 
appointments of  the  centuries  of  time  and  the  gen- 
erations of  men.  The  future  of  that  child  depends 
in  a  great  part  upon  its  nursery  education,  upon 
the  first  impressions  made  upon  the  plastic  tissue  of 
the  brain.  Heredity  may  possibly  have  overlooked 
and  omitted  the  glory  of  a  century  or  two  in  the 
reproduction  of  that  brain,  but  heredity  makes  few 
errors.  You  may  be  assured  that  heredity  has  left 
out  the  impressions  of  evil  and  has  carefully  put  in 
all  that  was  possible  of  the  good  ;  the  development 
of  use  and  of  educated  experience.  Here  is  this 
wonderful  structure,  like  a  great  organ  with  its  hun- 
dreds of  keys,  stops,  and  combinations,  ready  for 
the  touch  of  the  musical  expert.  You  may  be  as- 
sured that  the  first  melody  is  the  song  of  affection, 
the  grand  oratorio  of  human  love.  The  mother's 
touch  never  wakes  the  discord  of  hate.  But  here 
in  this  nursery  with  this  child  and  its  mother  is  con- 
ducted the  lesson  of  human  destiny.  Will  she  put 
the  stamp,  the  burning  brand  of  alcohol  upon  that 
most  wonderful  creation,  the  brain  of  her  child  ? 
Has  she  done  so  before  its  natal  day  ?  If  she  has 
or  does,  let  hef  look  forward  at  the  devious,  dark- 


RELATION   OF   WOMAN   TO   INEBRIETY.     339 

ened,  and  uncertain  path  of  her  child  through  life. 
The  stamp  of  inebriety  will  color  every  act,  will 
bring  sorrow,  will  prevent  success,  will  set  discord 
to  the  music  of  praise  for  victory,  will  bring  per- 
haps an  early  death. 

The  influence  of  women  in  the  prevention  of  in- 
temperance has  led  the  van  of  crusade,  suasidil,  and 
pledge.  Woman  is  the  sufferer  when  husband, 
brother,  or  son  are  inebriates.  No  place  on  earth  or 
under  it,  nothing  outside  of  the  inferno,  contains  or 
exposes  more  human  agony  or  degradation  than  does 
the  drunkard's  home,  and  the  wife  is  the  chief  suf- 
ferer. The  strong  arm  which  should  support  IK 
palsied  by  poison.  The  manliness  which  won  her 
maiden  love  is  debased.  The  intellect  which  com- 
manded her  pride  and  respect  is  darkened  by  stu- 
por, coma,  or  maudlin  vaporings.  Alcohol  stains 
the  breath  which  or  to  her  waiting  ears  the 

tender  words  of  confidence  and  affection.  You 
cannot  refine  drunkenness.  Neither  wealth  nor 
fashion  can  atone  for  the  loss  of  thought  and  the 
intellectual  coma  from  poison.  The  mind  is  equally 
lost  when  debauched,  whether  in  a  hovel  or  a  palace. 
Alcohol  is  equally  at  home  and  equally  vicious, 
whether  the  victim  is  clad  in  broadcloth  or  in  r 
Wherever  there  may  be  happiness,  in  the  home  of 
humble  industry  or  in  the  residence  of  fashion  and 
luxury,  when  inebriety  enters  happiness  becomes  an 
outcast. 

Woman  is   the   steadfast   friend    of  the   cure  for 
inebriety.      Her  intense  mind  at   once   grasped   the 


34°        THE   NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

new  idea  and  the  truth  that  inebriety  is  a  disease. 
Her  loving  nature  stood  ready  to  forgive  alcohol 
and  the  inebriate  for  the  purgatorial  tortures  of 
heart  and  home  and  happiness  ;  but  the  mother,  the 
sister,  and  the  wife,  while  forgiving  and  pitying  the 
loved  inebriate,  insist  on  his  cure  and  his  restora- 
tion to  sobriety.  A  wife's  love  will  follow  a  man 
through  misfortune,  through  self-abasement,  through 
drunkenness  and  its  degradation  ;  however  low  he 
may  fall  the  wife  will  be  found  by  his  side,  her  lov- 
ing embrace  clasping  even  the  senseless  clay  when 
the  waves  of  debauch  have  engulfed  sense  and  con- 
sciousness ;  but  no  influence  can  be  compared  with 
that  of  woman  in  compelling  the  inebriate  to  adopt 
the  means  of  cure.  If  not  for  her  influence  and  her 
watchfulness  and  care,  the  fatality  of  the  inebriate 
debauch  would  exceed  the  present  rate  by  possibly 
twenty-five  per  cent.,  and  the  number  presented  for 
treatment  and  cure  would  be  far  less.  To-day, 
as  always,  the  inebriate's  best  adviser  is  his  wife,  his 
sister,  and  his  mother.  When  the  inebriate  was 
known  only  as  a  criminal  these  women  believed  in  his 
moral  uprightness  and  pitied  his  misfortune.  They 
labored  with  tears  and  strove  by  pledge,  suasion, 
and  prayer  to  reform  the  wickedness  of  the  craving 
for  drin-k.  They  condoned  the  awful  misfortune  of 
debauch,  and  forgot  the  language  which  the  imbe- 
cility of  the  drunken  man  heaped  abusively  upon 
devoted  heads  and  trembling  hearts.  Woman  is 
better  than  man.  She  is  intense  in  mental  and 
moral  life  and  feels  her  responsibilities  very  keenly. 


RELATION   OF   WOMAN    TO    INK  BRIE  TV.      341 

Sometimes  a  woman  falls  from  her  high  station,  like 
Lucifer  from  the, skies,  while  the  whole  world  looks 
on  as  at  the  shining  track  of  a  meteor.  But  the 
history  of  good  works  is  the  biography  of  the  sister- 
hood of  the  Earth.  No  photograph  of  the  cross 
while  it  held  the  crucified  Saviour  could  have  been 
taken  without  containing  the  figure  of  a  woman  ;  and 
no  enterprise  under  the  name  of  Christianity  since 
the  Star  of  Bethlehem  shone  over  the  hills  of  Judca 
has  ever  been  adopted  for  the  moral  and  religious 
advancement  of  humanity,  that  was  successful,  with- 
out the  sanction  and  work  of  woman.  The  moral  labor 
of  the  world  in  developing  character  and  mind  is  the 
labor  of  an  artisan  upon  an  ornament  of  1  .-'old, 

designed  to  crown  tin-  brow  of  a  perfected  manhood 
and  show  the  skill  of  human  workmanship.  But 
when  the  crown  is  made,  the  great  jewel,  the  Kohi- 
noor  of  great  price,  which  it  must  bear  in  the 
golden  setting,  is  the  character  and  labor  of  woman 
in  the  intellectual  and  moral  perfection  of  the 
human  race. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

A  REVIEW  OF   THE    DISEASE   AND   THE  CURE  OF 
INEBRIETY. 

A  LCOHOL  is  a  stimulant ;  it  furnishes  energy 
<L\.  and  liberates  energy  already  stored.  Energy 
of  the  body  is  subject  to  the  laws  that  are  given  to 
energy  everywhere,  and  these  general  laws  are  known 
as  the  "  conservation  of  energy  "  and  the  "  correla- 
tion of  force."  When  alcohol  is  taken  into  the  body 
the  energy  which  was  required  to  form  the  combina- 
tion of  the  molecules  of  this  compound  is  liberated, 
or  the  alcohol  is  oxidized  ;  this  liberated  energy  is 
not  lost  in  the  body,  but  is  correlated  into  the  phys- 
iological forces  of  the  body,  being  transformed  into 
nerve,  muscle,  and  gland  energy.  The  alcohol  is 
oxidized  and  the  liberated  energy  is  turned  to  heat, 
or  is  heat.  The  heat,  if  in  a  gland,  is  converted  into 
the  forces  of  the  gland  ;  the  same  law  holds  with 
muscle  and  nerve.  Alcohol  consumed  in  the  liver 
increases  the  function  of  that  organ  ;  consumed  in 
the  tissues  of  the  heart  the  liberated  energy  is 
changed  into  muscle  and  nerve  energy  ;  the  same  law 
holding  good  as  to  the  brain,  kidneys,  lungs,  or  other 
organs.  Out  of  this  necessity,  from  the  chemical 
standpoint,  alcohol  is  a  general  stimulant.  It  stim- 

342 


THE    DISEASE    AND   THE   CURE.  343 

ulates  the  brain  and  all  nerve  centres,  and  increases 
nerve  activity,  the  power  of  the  heart,  and  the  ex- 
cretory and  secretory  forces.  There  is  no  organ  or 
function  which  it  docs  not  stimulate;  it  is,  therefore, 
a  remedy  in  disease  and  injury,  second  to  no  other 
known  in  point  of  availability,  promptness,  and  cer- 
tainty of  action.  These  properties  of  alcohol  are  so 
well  understood  that  the  drug  has  become  a  popular 
remedy  in  all  diseases  and  injuries  of  an  emergency 
nature.  It  is,  if  such  a  thing  is  possible,  an  automatic, 
or  an  instinctive  remedy.  In  any  injury  or  sudden 
illness,  involving  pain  and  faintness,  liquor  is  the  arti- 
cle loudly  called  for,  and  is  in  universal  use  through- 
out Christendom.  But  whether  alcohol  is  a  stim- 
ulant or  not  depends  upon  two  factors.  The  fir 
the  quantity  used  as  a  dose  ;  the  second  is  the  con- 
dition of  the  system,  which  condition  r  the 
disease  or  injury,  and  also  to  the  -nee 
that  the  system  may  have  to  alcohol.  With  relation 
to  the  dose  or  quantity  taken  the  latter  is  eitli 
stimulant  or  a  deprcssent. 

The  general  law  of  poisons  is  that  in  a  small  dose 
any  drug  is  a  stimulant  to  any  tissue  or  organ  to 
which  in  a  large  dose  it  is  a  poison.  The  effects  of 
the  small  dose  and  large  dose  are  opposite.  lu  a 
small  dose  it  stimulates  the  brain,  causing  increased 
activity  and  power  of  mind,  gland,  and  muscle.  In 
a  sufficiently  lar:  it  causes  the  sleep  of  coma 

and  the  general  paralysis  of  death.  It  simulates 
death.  In  poisonous  doses  it  paralyzes  all  organs  ; 
it  can  stop  the  heart,  paralyze  the  brain,  destroy  the 


344        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF   INEBRIETY. 

mind  ;  there  will  be  no  digestion,  excretion,  or 
secretion,  and  death  may  be  the  final  result.  From 
the  mental  standpoint  the  effect  of  a  small  dose  is  a 
typical  insanity,  delirium  and  delusions,  with  hal- 
lucinations of  sense.  Then  follows  a  paralysis  of 
the  higher  centres,  with  the  mental  accompaniment 
of  dullness,  stupor,  and  finally  the  oblivion  of  mind 
in  coma.  From  the  physical  standpoint  there  is 
exaltation  of  strength  and  activity,  followed  by  par- 
alysis of  all  voluntary  muscles,  which  may  involve 
those  of  the  circulation  and  respiration,  resulting  in 
death.  Alcohol  is,  therefore,  in  small  doses  a  stim- 
ulant and  in  large  ones  a  poison.  In  small  doses  it 
is  a  medicine  —  a  remedy  ;  in  large  doses  it  destroys 
life.  As  a  remedy  it  is  more  generally  and  uni- 
versally used  than  any  other  drug  ;  as  a  poison  it 
destroys  more  lives  than  all  other  poisons  combined. 
But  whether  in  large  or  small  doses,  as  poison  or 
remedy,  alcohol  has  another  effect  upon  the  system. 
It  causes  a  special  disease  —  inebriety. 

These  are  laws  of  poisons  :  The  first  is  that  a 
drug  is  a  stimulant  to  tissues  in  a  small  dose,  upon 
which  it  acts  as  a  poison  in  a  large  dose.  The  sec- 
ond law  is  that  a  drug  which  so  acts  as  a  remedy 
and  a  poison  creates  a  tolerance  in  these  same  tissues 
to  the  action  of  the  poison,  and  also  creates  a  crav- 
ing for  the  poison.  This  law  is  particularly  ex- 
emplified in  such  poisons  as  morphia,  chloral,  and 
alcohol. 

The  disease  of  inebriety  is  a  lesion  of  the  tissue 
cells  and  nuclei  caused  by  poison.  This  lesion  is  a 


THE    DISEASE   AM)   THE   <  345 

variation  of  the  molecular  type  of  the  cell  ;  it  is  a 
re-adjustment  or  re-arrangement  of  the  molecules  of 
the  cells,  designed  to  give  to  tissues  a  resistance  to 
the  poison.  This  is  an  inevitable  sequence  of  all 
poisoning  which  does  not  cause  immediate  death. 
This  variation,  or  new  condition,  which  causes  a  tol- 
erance to  the  poison,  or  an  increased  resistance  to 
it,  also  causes  a  craving  for  the  drug.  The  craving 
for  poison  is  inebriety,  and  inebrieties  can  be  ca 
in  no  other  way  than  by  the  action  of  respective 
poisons.  In  this  manner  are  brought  about  alco- 
holic, opium,  chloral,  ether,  arsenic,  and  all  other 
inebrieties. 

The    first   di-  uised    bv  alcohol,  and   which 

is  an  invariable  result  of  poisoning  bv  alcohol,  is  in- 
ebriety. Its  pi  is  characterized  bv  a  craving 
for  drink  and  bvan  iner  >leranceto  the  a- 
of  the  poison.  The  svnipl-  i  period- 
ical craving  for  li<juor,  caused  bv  an  automatism  of 
the  cells;  then  follows  a  debauch,  or  a  spree,  or  an 
attack  of  acute  alcoholic  poisoning.  There  follows 
an  automatic  reversal  of  action,  which  causes  a  dis- 
gust for  the  drug,  accompanied  bv  vomiting,  indi- 
gestion, and  sometimes  bv  certain  nervous  svmptoms, 
known  as  delirium  tremens.  The  mental  accom- 
paniment or  result  of  inebriety  is  alcoholic,  insanity. 
This  mental  d;  uised  by  an  automatic 
periodical  craving  for  liquor,  succeeded  by  the 
poisoning,  with  mental  derangements  of  hallucina- 
tions, mania,  delusions  ;  then  melancholia,  followed 
by  an  interval  of  sobriety.  The  debauch  con 


346.      THE    NON-HEREDITY    OF    INEBRIETY. 

of  the  daily  periodical  paroxysm  of  craving,  mania, 
delusion,  stupor,  and  coma. 

Alcohol  produces  an  imitation  of  nearly  all  dis- 
eases. It  causes  pseudo-ataxia  and  numerous  other 
lesions  of  brain  and  spinal  cord,  pseudo-degenera- 
tions of  nervous  structures,  and  multiple  neuritis ; 
also  pseudo-degenerative  lesions  of  lungs,  stomach, 
liver,  kidneys,  and  other  organs.  The  more  remote 
effects  of  the  poisoning  seem  to  be  brought  about 
as  follows  :  The  pseudo-degenerations  and  inflam- 
mations pave  the  way  in  the  tissues  for  secondary 
diseases,  the  chief  of  these  being  tuberculosis,  and 
more  specific  lesions  of  the  brain,  spinal  cord,  the 
liver  and  kidneys,  caused  by  the  pathogenic  bac- 
teria. The  pathological  philosophy  is  that  alcohol 
by  causing  these  pseudo-diseases  is  the  source  of 
the  more  remote  diseases,  the  reason  being  that 
alcoholic  lesions  destroy  or  lessen  the  resistance  of 
the  tissues  to  the  invasive  forces  of  the  microbe. 
Alcohol  may,  therefore,  be  responsible  for  all  or  any 
of  these  organic  diseases  directly  and  remotely. 

All  drinking  is  periodical  or  rhythmical,  and  is 
not  "constant"  or  "steady."  It  would  be  impos- 
sible for  any  inebriate  to  drink  "steadily"  except  he 
were  under  surveillance  and  the  drug  were  given  in 
stated  doses  at  regular  intervals.  This  attempted 
differentiation  between  constant  drinking  and 
periodical  debauchery  is  the  irregularity  of  the 
quantity  drank  and  the  time  between  drinks.  Close 
observation  of  any  case  of  inebriety  will  show  that 
the  factors  of  inebriety  are  a  craving,  a  debauch, 


THE    DISEASE   AND   THE   -  317 

% 

and  a  reaction.  These  are  the  necessary  phenomena 
of  inebriety,  or  the  factors  of  inebriety.  Logically, 
if  there  is  such  a  tiling  as  steady  or  constant  drink- 
ing, then  there  is  but  one  factor  of  inebriety,  which 
is  steady  drinking,  with  its  result  of  intoxication. 
But  nature  insists  on  rhythm  in  all  things.  If 
drinking  could  be  "steady"  or  "constant,"  then 
there  would  be  but  one  factor  in  inebriety  and  that 
would  be  an  equally  steady  intoxication.  Thi- 
impossible.  It  could  not  be  prodr.  n  under 

the   strictest   surveillanci  pose   pi  four 

ounces  of  the   same   brand   of  liquor  w<  u  to 

an   inebriate  lour   hours.      Nature:  even   then 

would  assert  herself  and  display  the  phenomenon  of 
rhythm,  which  makes  possible  all  the  phenomen 
this  world,  whether  of   life-,  mind,  or   pi:  If  a 

man  is  put  under  strict  suryeillance  and  pre- 

cisely  four    ounces   of    liquor    regularly  lour 

hours,  the  phenomena  of  sympt<  "iild 

be  as  follows:  During  \\akefulness,  or  from  the 
breakfast  hour  until  nearly  evening,  there  would  be 
little  or  no  manifestation  of  drunkenness.  The 
higher  nerye  centres  would  be  actiye  with  the  im- 
pressions of  the  daily  life.  The  inebriate  could 
attend  to  business  during  the  morning  hours;  he 
would  gain  some  appetite  and  digestix  r  by 

midday,  when  he  would   be  able  to  take  a  meal  and 
digest  it.      But   by  four   or   five  o'clock  in  the  afl 
noon     the     higher     nerve     centres     would    become 
fatigued.     There  would  be  a  heayy  accumulation  of 
alcohol  in  the  brain  and  the  symptoms  of  intoxica- 


348        THE    NON-HEREDITY   OF    INEBRIETY. 

tion  would  follow.  Three  hours  later  the  sleep  of 
coma  would  succeed  and  last  until  morning.  But 
if  any  person,  even  an  inebriate,  is  given  this 
amount  of  liquor  every  day,  a  week  or  more  is 
required  to  establish  an  average  amount  of  tolerance 
to  the  drug.  When  this  degree  is  established  the 
resulting  symptoms  will  be  about  as  given. 

No  regularity  in  the  giving  of  alcohol  can  con- 
trol the  rhythms  of  all  physiology  and  of  all  nature  ; 
yet  this  would  be  necessary  to  establish  a  single 
case  of  what  must  be  meant  by  steady  drinking,  in- 
stead of  periodical  drinking.  The  only  difference 
in  drinking,  from  this  standpoint,  is  the  duration  of 
the  interval  of  sobriety.  This  duration  may  be  a 
few  hours,  a  few  days,  or  a  few  months,  or,  even,  a 
few  years.  The  periodicity,  however,  is  always  the 
same  in  quality  ;  it  differs  only  in  quantity.  But  no 
inebriate  will  drink  regularly  as  relating  to  time  or 
quantity.  This  is  impossible.  All  inebriates  drink 
periodically  ;  the  paroxysms  of  drinking  vary, 
according  to  the  day  or  the  night,  or  the  condition 
of  the  stomach  or  of  the  nervous  system. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  "  steady  drinking."  All 
drinking  is  rhythmical  or  periodical,  and  all  symp- 
toms of  alcoholic  poisoning  are  the  same.  The  only 
difference  in  the  several  cases  is  the  length  of  the 
rhythm. 

The  general  principles  underlying  my  treatment 
of  inebriety  are  as  follows  :  First,  the  only  cause  of 
alcohoMc  inebriety  is  alcohol.  Second,  inebriety  is  a 
variation  in  type  and  conduct  of  the  nerve  centres 


THE   DISEASE   AND   THE   CURE.  349 

and  cells,  which  variation  results  in  an  automatism 
requiring  a  periodical  poisoning  by  alcohol. 

My  remedies  antagonize  this  effect  of  alcohol  upon 
the  nerve  cells  and  break  up  the  rhythmical  auto- 
matic craving  for  liquor.  Automatism  is  the  foun- 
dation of  alcoholic  inebriety,  and  the  rhythm  of  the 
automatism  is  the  key  to  its  existence. 

The  remedies  do  not  cure  the  associated  dis< 
of    inebriety,     as    consumption,    kidney    disease,    or 
other  ailments.      I  claim  to  destroy  only  the  craving 
for  drink,  and  this  I  have   never  failed  to   do,  un 
a  barrier  is  presented  by  reason  of  antecedent  pi 
ical  or   mental   conditions,  whereby  the   system   will 
not   tolerate   the   absence   of    accustomed    alcoholic 
stimulation. 


YANDERBILT  UNIVERSITY 

OF  MEDICINE 


INDEX. 


Abstinence,  enforced  ----- 

Acts,  repetition  of  -----  168, 

'  i  lion  to  condit  . 

ine  __________________ 

Alchemists  -------------- 

Alcohol,  action   of  ------- 

a  food  ----------------- 

an    instinctivr 

and   sanitation  -------- 

--------  3^' 

bahishmj 

disp  •!"  ________ 

•  if  -------------- 

ry  day   use  of-   _______ 

elimination  of     _____  . 

food  relations  of  -------- 

food  value  of---  143,  144, 

- 
_______ 

inhibitory  action  of  ----- 

in  stomach   and   1> 
manufacture    of  ________ 

miuk-ralf  -150, 

no  temperate  use  of--- 
not  tlie  Irast  ol    \n 
oxydi/ed  in  ti; 

>tions 


187 
169 

119 
113 

j.jo 

253 
145 

141 

M7 

1  2  5 
144 

152 


315 


physiological  action 229 

Bribed  for  children- 
217, 

Iirohibition  of 315 

217 

quantity                      1      in 
the  body 151 

king 

i" 



on 

tern;  148 

the  cup  that  cheers 

ly  of  man 157 

the  evolution; 

:'ul  in  daily  life 151 

Alcoholism 

apparent  cun 

,.iiic 121 

Altruism 

stry 113 

Animal   and  plant,   n 

duction 208 

Antitoxin 

Appetite  and  will  power 

Ashes  and  oxidation 120 

Astronomy 61. 

•ment -    68 


351 


352  INDEX. 


Atropia 17 

B 

Bacillus  comma 133 

Bacon,  Lord ' 34 

Bacteria  .-22,  23,  24,  25,  30, 

39,  41,  42,  43,  44,  45,  100 

Bacteriology 32 

Bad  colds,  pathology  of--   189 

Barbarians 336 

Bastian 21,     23 

Beginning  to  drink,  a  vice  311 
Belief,  meaning  of ---89,  94,  95 

creeds 90 

cures  and  treatment 308 

Bethlehem,  The  Star  of--  341 

Bibliomaniac in 

Bicycle 183 

Biological  facts 192 

history  of 193 

Biology 21,     24 

Black  Death 45 

Black  hole  of  Calcutta 29 

Blood  pressure 11 

Blood  tells 336 

Books,   old no,  in 

Brain 69 

engraving  of    crave    on 

the 186 

interference   with    func- 
tions of 122 

of  infant 225 

shrinking   of 78 

tissue  of ---   185 

tumor  of 307 

Bright's  disease 307 

Broken  bones 95 

Brown  Sequard no,  in 

belief  of 113 

mistake  of-.  .   116 


Cain  and  Abel 310 

Catacombs 69 

Catalytic  action 104 

Causes  of  disease 48 

Cells,   unstable  and   vari- 
able   122 

death  of 124 

diseased  dependent  upon 

narcotics 122 

male  and  female  germ- 

209,  210 

metabolism 144 

necessity  and  structure-  123 

the  work  of 1 28 

variation  of 127 

Cemeteries 136 

Centenarian 68,69,     76 

Cerebrine   formula 117 

Charts    of     stomach    dis- 
eases   314 

Chinese  ladies,  feet  of 199 

Chloroform 37 

Cholera _     46 

Christian  nations  as  drunk- 
ards   218 

the  drunkenness  of 153 

Cities,  lax  sanitation  of---   136 
Civilized    nations,    history 

of--  -   194 

Congress,   Anti-Alcoholic-   148 
Consumption  and  syphilis  200 

Corpuscles,  blood ':--   177 

Cradle  and  nursery 217 

Crave,  the 223 

Craving  for  drink,  cause  of 

180,  181,  225 
Creeds----  --14,     34 

Crimes  of  dr.uhkards 186 

Cross,  photograph  of  the--  341 


INDEX. 


353 


Dailybread -   115 

Darwin 33,  34 

his  generalization 178 

Debauch,  the  forms  of 262 

Debauchery  and  effects  of 

74,  76,  176 

Delusions 73 

Delirium  tremens 228,  246 

Desires,   healthy  and    un- 
healthy     123 

Development 52 

Digestion 104,  164 

Disease,  adaptation  to 

forces  of 108 

definitions   of t 

deformities  <>i 

germ 

heredity  to ;• . 

horrors  of 73 

immunity  from  53,  (/>,  71,  108 

laws  of 62,  63,   177 

multiplication   of    < 

of 99 

prevention  of 98 

proverbially  hereditary.  200 
re!:" ion    to    immunity 

from 98 

social  relations  of 98 

tolerance  to 108 

Diseases,  all  results  of  poi- 
son  ---   137 

apologies  for 220 

causes  of.. 26,  30,  34,  36 

classification  of 37,  40,  92 

cures  of.  10,  30,32,38,41, 

81,82 

drugs  in 224.  227 

duration   of 49>5i 

exposure  to 60 


fatal 96 

immunity  from  10,  12,  41, 

62,  65,  99 

mental  and  physical 84 

obscure 96 

of  infancy  and  children-  227 

preventable 12,  21,  36 

•us  termination 

........ 36 

Dr.  Anstie 146 

Dr.    Hammond .-  114 



:    116 

formula  of 116 

Drink, 

how  to 136 

Drink  habii.                i  >pir- 
itual  vice 

Drink: 



vivial  

immorality  of- — . 

non-heredity   of 256 

periodically 313 

for 126 

the  educational  period  of  194 

action 17,  56,  58 

Drunkards,  the  -   218 

Drunkenness 57 

a  vice 137 

Dyspepsia,     influence     on 

mind - 165,  166 


Ears,  piercing  of 199 

Eden 68 

Education 159 

and  heredity 335 


354  INDEX. 


in  inebriety 169 

Egyptians 127 

Electricity 37 

Elimination 124 

Empiricism 23 

Enlightened    nations,    the 

inebriate 154 

the  debauch  of 157 

Environment 59 

Epilepsy-- 307 

effects  of  remedies 318 

Epidemics  as  stimulants--  155 

decay  of 77 

Esophagus,  stricture  of —  201 

Ethical  philosophy 82 

Ethics,  low  ebb  of 164 

European  epidemics 62 

Evolution,  misstep  of 77 


Fads,   medical no 

Faith 113 

Family,  the  unit  of  society 

334,  335 
Fatigue 329 

Fermentation.. .22,  25,  26, 

27,     30 

Fever 16,17,     18 

Final  Design 10,  46,    71 

Food,  abstinence  from 163 

Fundamental  verity 86 


Gaining  the  whole  world--  329 

Genealogical  record 211 

Genesis,  nature  and  laws  of  193 

Germany--- 37 

Germ  cells,  powers  of no 

Germ  theory 14,15,35,    99 

Germitoxics 41 


Getting   rich .__  329 

jland,  pancreatic 119 

Golden  rule ,_  331 

rief 75 

H 

Habit  in  inebriety 168 

Hahnemann 16 

Harlequin 87 

Harvest  field 332 

Heart  failure 329 

Heart's  action 17 

Heart,  the  unregenerate--   134 

Heredity 50,  63,  64,  71 

in  disease 201 

laws  of 204,335,  336 

one  method  in  disease--  257 
prominent  instance  of--  206 
rules  of,  applied  to  life 

203,  205 

selective  powers  of 108 

Homeopathy 14,  16 

Hope 96 

Hospital,      St.      Bartholo- 
mew's   148 

Human  race,  impediments 

of 128 

Humanity,  the  curse  of —  332 

Hunger ____i32,  162,  164 

love,  thought 128 

Hydrotherapy 37 

Hypnotism 291-295 

I 

Ignorance,  mistakes  of---  222 
Imaginary  diseases,  caused 

by  the  mind -     93 

Imagination -  138 

Immoral      men,    often  of 

highest  intellect -  213 


INDEX. 


Immorality  of  drinking--.  309 

of  children  taking  drugs  226 
Immune  blood 12,     19 

properties  of  solids  and 

fluids 102 

Immunity,  laws  of 104 

philosophy   of IOI 

the  meaning  of 100 

Impressions,  mental 186 

Individuals,  creations  of--    no 

Indians,  tribes  of 198,   195 

Indigestion 

Inebriate,  the 

Inebriate,  morals  -  320 

the  clinical  hi.- 

worse  than  a  dead  man 
Inebriety,  a 

a  crime 

and  heredity  .-  50,  57. 
60,  61,  70,  94, 

197,  214,  349 

associated  di>< 

automatism  in  relation  t 

caused  by  other  di> 

classification   of 

constitution    of 212 

condition   of 

definition  121 

easily    cui  306 

education,  no:  , 

harmf ulness  of  dn; 

laws    governing 

lesions  of  cells  in.-- 174, 

175. 

misunderstanding 

nature   of 203 

no    secret 

object  lessons  of 

of  prisoners 

f  children- . 


pathology  of 

spontaneous  cure  of 

symptoms   of 75, 

the  crave  in 

the  methods  of  cure 

the  course  of 

treatment  and  cur« 

121, 

what  is  it 

Inflammation 

.hition 54,    55, 

laws   of 

11  of 

.ity 

and  druiv  ;!ike-- 

•ins  in  net, 

in 

delusions  in 



fron.  . 

how  

importance  of 

incurable 

of  inebriety  socially 

pan  :s  in 

the  periodicity  of 

Intemperance,   cause  of 

wickedness  in 

evil  of 

the  secret  of 

Intent  and    consciousness, 

the  laws  of 

Intoxication 

Intoxicated  men 



tent  of  the  • 
justn  '       atiment  in 

31 1, 

al  innocent  < 
, 


355 

174 
306 
191 
129 

307 
169 

138 
128 

51 

IOI 

176 
109 
29 


242 
241 
241 
240 

243 
250 
248 
249 
242 

245 

133 
128 
219 

309 
260 


320 
321 


356 


INDEX. 


not  responsible  311 

same  law  for  consump- 
tives as - -  312 


J 


Jenner 


i3 


K 


Koch .  —  20,32,  33.34,35 

Kohinoor,  the 34 1 


.62,  63 


La  Grippe 

Laws  of  the  universe 47,  4» 

Lazarus--- X32 

Laziness 124»  T56 

Lesions,  remote  in  inebri- 
ety  

Leucomaines— 28,  29,  117 

as  poisons 

groups  of  -- 

toleration  for 

Liberty 

Life,  appreciation  of- - 

competitions  in 

duration  of- - 
elixir  of 


the  struggles  of—-  !:7 

vicious,  weak-willed 138 

Matter,   inorganic--  -' ' 

Medical   creeds 

Melancholia-.- 84, 

Memory,  organic- - 

Men  and  women,  the  better 

classes --   J35 

Mental  bias (j° 

Mental    faculties-- 
Methods  of  vicious  drink- 


13 
134 

185 


ing 

Metschnikoff 


118 
118 
118 

156 
165 
321 
78,79 


114 


3*2>  313 

.__ 104 

theory   of--  ---••;   IO5 

Microbe 20,  28,  29,  36, 

45,  48,  ioo,  101 

Millennium--     ----  -  3l6 

Mind,  definition  of  -  -83,  85,    87 

human  conduct 165 

influence  in    germ    dis- 
eases      °° 

influence  over  body- -83 

84,86,    91 

.     resistance  to  disease -92,    93 
Mind  cure 97 


expectations  of -  146 

object  of 

struggle  for  — - 

the  heritage  of !1' 

Like  causes  like- - 
List  of  human  vices--       -  3°9 
Living  things,  subject   to 
environment 


Moderate  drinkers--- -159,  2°5 
classes  of 


pleasures  of 
Molecules  -- 


Morphinism 
Moses 
Murder 
Musculine 


205 
128 
213 

122 

15 

134 

120 


Long  life,  the  secret  of--       77    My  Lady's  and  my  Lord's 
Lucid  intervals -:!         table 311 


M 


Magicians--  .....  -  .....  -- 
Mahomet,  religion  of  ..... 

Man,  primitive  ......  ----- 


N. 


33° 


Nature --41,86,87 

cannot  be  forced --------  J9b 


INDEX. 


357 


restorative  remedies  of-  123 

slowness  of 108 

National  tolerance  to  alco- 
hol  72,  73 

Nations,  working  and  idle  155 
Natural  selection  44,  45,  58, 

63,  105,  1 60,  261 

factors  of _   107 

studyof 

Nerve' cells  and  alcohol---   180 

Nerves  peripheral --  213 

Nerve  degeneration 

Nervi  '-ondary 

diseases  of 247 

Neura.-.thenia 125 

Neuritis 213 

Nirvana 76 

Noah,  landing  of 253 

Non-heredity  of  consump- 
tion   256 

No  reform  for  the  present 

generation 221 

Nostrums  and  prescrip- 
tions as  causes  of  re- 
lapses  230 

O. 

Old  age. -. 69,70,  80 

Old  masters -  220 

Old  Oaken  Bucket ...  131 

Optimist 41 

,uism,  laws  of 105,  178 

new  adaptations  of 107 

Origin  of  species 35 

Ovariotomy 37 

Overwork  and  overpoison- 

ing  -.                   124 

Overwork  and  worry 329 

Oxygen 39,  42,  48 

Ozone 41,  43 


P. 


Parasitism 20 

Pasteur 14,  20,  32 

Pathology 9,  15,  17,  18,  32 

science  of 9,  10,  15 

Pathologists 48 

Pathognomonic  signs 122 

i               do  not  inherit  dis- 
ease   196 

•  us,  heredity  in 203 

icytic  theory 177 

48,  104,  105 

Phantoms 137 

Philosophy,   history  of 87 

Physiology,    the   manufac- 
turers of 124 

Physiological  units 211 

Physicians  prescriptions--  326 

Pineal  gland 206 

45 

Pneumonia 13 

n 41,  44,  46,  47,  49 

128 

hereditary  effects  of 57 

laws  of 107 

results  of 107 

ranee  to  51,60,68,  71,. 

Poisons,  decomposition  of-  127 

diseases  of 345 

laws  of 175,  344 

Poisoning    and    its   results 

18,  57,  70,  105,  191 

and  nutrition 140 

demands  for 65,  66 

laws  of 49,  51,  70,  105,  191 

narcotic 55 

55 

Premonitions 88 

Preventable  diseases 315 

Preventing  diseases 195 


358 


INDEX. 


Prohibition  and  sobriety.-  325 
as  a  cure  for  intemper- 
ance   135 

difficulties  of 135,  330 

Prohibitory  laws 325 

Protoplasm -- 59 

Ptomaines- 1 1,  18,  28,  30,40,  44 

isolated 103 

poisons  from  culture —  102 

Pseudo  science --__-- 90 

Public    schools  teach   pa- 
thology   of    inebriety 

313,  3H 

Public  morals 134 

Punishment  of   insane 75 

Putrefaction 22,  40 


Rachel  mourning 75 

tears 316 

Rainy  day 163 

Reformer,  the  true,  at  work  220 

Relapse.- 318 

causes  of 319 

proportion  of 318,  323 

Relations  of  vice  and  dis- 
ease   258 

Religion  as  a  cure 252 

Remedies,  the  action  of.-  349 
Reproductive  power,  rela- 
tions to  adenine 119 

Resistance  of  cells 11 

Reverie 137 

Ruling  passions 186 


Saliva 102 

Saloon 135 

Sanitation 33,  46 

conditions 329 


the  results  of 138 

Sanity  and  insanity 122 

Satan.. 68,  134,  135 

Scarlatina 13,  35,    44 

Science  and  biology 208 

as  a  dictator 333 

therapeutics 55 

Scientists  and  philosophers 

112,  209 

Scripture 50 

Secret  drinkers 340 

Selection  of  animals 263 

Seminaries 255 

Sensation 92 

Sentiment  as  a  reformer--  332 

Sermon  on  the  mount 332 

Serotherapy 98,  101,  103 

Serum 102 

Sincerity  of  criticism 318 

Siri,  diseases  in  the  domain 

of 306 

Six  fingers  and  toes 198 

Sleeplessness 247 

Sober  period,  duration  of-  182 

explanation  of 182 

Sobriety,  cause  of 167 

forces  control  periods  -  313 

interval  of 137 

Social  vices 331 

Society,  the  salt  of 138 

Soothing  syrups 216 

Spencer,  Herbert 16 

Steady  and  constant  drink- 
ing      -346,  347,  348 

Stimulant,  necessity  for---  149 
Stomach,  inebriety --  171 

influence  in  drunkenness 

169,  170 

inebriate 162 

Struggle  for  life 83 


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